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COPYRIGHT DEPOSnV 



FOSTER'S 



Bridge Manual 



A COMPLETE SYSTEM OF INSTRUCTION 

IN THE GAME 



R. Fr^OSTER 

Author of '' Foster' s Whist Manual,^^ '-'■Duplicate Whists 
'' Brentano^s Pocket Library Series ^^^ etc. 



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NEW YORK 

BRENTANO'S 

1900 



All rights reserved 



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65281 

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LJbrary of Congress 

Two Copies Received 
OCT 24 1900 

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Copyright, 1900. 
By B R E N T a N O ' S. 



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CONTENTS. 



-♦o^ 



Preface • . . . 

Introduction 

Description of the Game 

The Makes 

Passed Makes 

Going Over 

Going Back 

The Play Against a Declared Trump 

The Dealer's Play with a Declared Trump 

The Leader's Play Against a No-trumper 

Third Hand Play Against a No-trumper 

Adversaries' Play Against Dummy's Cards 

The Dealer's Play in a Xo-Trumper . 

Combining the Hands of Dealer and Dummy 

The Play of the Second Hand 

Playing to the Score . . . 

Luck 

• ••••• 

Complete Index 



PAGE 


V 


viii 


I 


• 26 


• 50 


• 5S 


. 60 


. 63 


• 95 


104 


• 115 


122 


• 131 


• 146 


= ^55 


= 159 


162 


169 



PREFACE. 



Bridge, although now very widely known and 
played, is still in its infancy as a scientific game, and 
there are many points about its minor tactics and, its 
laws which are matters of dispute among the best 
players. Quite a number of text -books have already 
been published on the subject of bridge, but they do 
not agree to such an extent that any one of them 
might be taken as a guide to a system of play that 
would be intelligible to any partner in any part of the 
world. 

This should not be so, as there should be no dififi- 
culty in selecting the methods which are best suited 
to. the purpose in all such matters as opening leads, 
second-hand play, returns, echoes and discards. All 
text-books should agree in their instructions on these 
points, and in such matters as the correct play of 
certain combinations of cards held between dealer 
and dummy. It should be only when we come to 
the finer points of the game, which are largely mat- 



VI FOSTER S BRIDGE MANUAL. 

ters of individual judgment and temperament, that 
we should find it necessary to drop the text-book 
and depend upon the best of all teachers — prac- 
tical experience at the bridge table. 

It would be very nice if the game could be reduced 
to an exact science, with a rule to fit every possible 
case ; but, unfortunately, the character of the game is 
such that it is extremely difficult to lay down any 
general rule without being compelled immediately to 
cover it up with so many possible exceptions that the 
original statement is practically lost sight of. So 
much depends upon a number of minor considera- 
tions, infinitely varied, and there is so much of the 
element of luck running through it all, that it is dan- 
gerous for any text-book to venture further than a 
statement of general principles, the application of 
which must be supplemented by long practice at the 
table before one can hope to become an expert. 

In the following pages the author has avoided all 
the little details which lead to such differences of 
opinion, and has endeavored to confine himself to 
setting forth the outlines of a sound and conservative 
game, which, if carefully studied and followed, will 
give the student a very decided advantage over any 
player not equally familiar with the subject. 



PREFACE. Vll 

In the arrangement of the opening leads at no- 
trumpers, as distinguished from those made against 
trump declarations, and in the classification of the 
various combinations of cards in one suit which may 
be held between the dealer and his dummy partner, 
and which must be played in certain ways in order to 
obtain the best results, the author has followed very 
closely along the lines laid down by Mr. J. B. Elwell, 
of New York, whose reputation as a successful 
teacher and player is second ta none in this country, 
and to whom the author is indebted for many valu- 
able suggestions. 

August, 1900. 



INTRODUCTION. 



Of all games of cards, bridge has undoubtedly en- 
joyed the most sudden rise in popular favor, and has 
taken a greater hold upon the affections of the more 
intelligent class of card players than any game which 
has hitherto engaged their attention. 

There seems to be something in the development 
of the race, in the condition of society, or in the state 
of public morals, which induces a nation to take up 
certain games at various periods of its history. Be- 
fore and after the war, when people did not have 
very much confidence in one another, and life was a 
game of big risks and bluff, poker was the favorite. 
During the era of carpet bags and credit, when indi- 
viduals started to do a big business with very small 
capital, and everyone tried to get the best of every 
one else, euchre very properly expressed the popular 
idea of the game of life, in which the best bower was 
held by the man with some advantage in the way of 
freight rates or patents. After that we come to the 



INTRODUCTION. IX 

period of partnerships, in which men began to con- 
solidate their interests, and business was conducted 
upon scientific principles by combining the best ele- 
ments in concerns that had previously been opposed, 
and so we reach the great partnership game of whist. 
We are now in the era of trusts, of combinations of 
such strength that they can absolutely dictate terms 
to their competitors. If these combinations are un- 
sound, they are expensive errors, but if they are 
founded on good judgment they overwhelm every- 
thing — a condition of affairs which is exactly repre- 
sented in the game of bridge. 

There is probably no game which so fittingly 
mirrors the attitude of the American mind in the 
conduct of business affairs. A man looks over the 
material in his hand and concludes that if he can 
make certain combinations they will bring him large 
returns. His partner opens his books to him without 
reserve and says ; " Here are my resources, combine 
them with yours, and let us get all there is in it," and 
their competitors just have to sit there and pay up, 
unless they can study up some combination strong 
enough to beat the trust. There has never been a 
time when there was such a premium on good judg- 
ment in business affairs, sound combinations of re- 



X FOSTER S BRIDGE MANUAL. 

sources, and taking advantage of the mistakes made 
by others, and there has never been a game in which 
exactly the same qualities were so fully rewarded as 
they are at bridge. 

Bridge is a comparatively new game to the Anglo- 
Saxon race, although a hybrid form of it has been 
played for the past thirty years or more in Constanti- 
nople, and later in Alexandria and the Riviera, under 
the name of khedive. Another variation has long 
been popular in Holland, and something very much 
like it is known in Russia under the name of yera- 
lash. From the Riviera it went to Paris, but when it 
was first brought to the attention of the old whist 
players in the French capital they did not seem to ap- 
preciate it, for we find in the Figaro^ of November 26, 
1893, M. Ariem Marx stating that one evening, at the 
home of M. Meilhac, Ludovic Halevy was explaining 
the attractions of the new game to some famous whist 
players, who were so little impressed by it, that they 
did not even care to try it. " Yet to-day," he adds, 
" these same whist players are among the warmest 
partisans of the new game." From Paris the game 
was brought to America by a Mr. B., a prominent 
member of the Union and the New York Whist 
Clubs, and from New York it easily found its way to 



INTRODUCTION. XI 

London where it is now played to the exclusion of 
everything else. 

Bridge belongs to the whist family of games, and is 
a curious mixture of boston, cayenne, and dummy. 
It has completely taken the place of straight whist, 
which has had a very precarious existence since the 
introduction of duplicate in America. Whist had the 
serious defect that luck was a more important element 
than skill and the best that the most skillful player 
could hope for was to save an occasional trick. Major- 
General Drayson, one of the best whist players in the 
world, tells us that the result of the most careful play 
on his part during a^period of twenty years, and often 
against very poor players, was only half a point a 
rubber, which is an average of less than a trick on 
each rubber of three games. Although he does not 
say so, he may have had a little the best of the luck 
also, and the gain, slight as it is, may not have been 
all due to skill. As compared to this, a first-class 
bridge player may safely reckon on picking up at least 
a trick on every deal against poor players, and he will 
win about a hundred points a week if he engages in 
six or seven rubbers a day against the average run of 
players. The number of tricks that are thrown away 
by poor players, simply by passing no-trumpers over 



XU FOSTER S BRIDGE MANUAL. 

to their partners, by bad makes, and by not knowing 
the proper way to play certain combinations of 
cards, is something appalHng. As "Cavendish" 
says : " There is no game of cards in the world in 
which skill, sound judgment, and insight into the 
methods of the adversaries will meet with more cer- 
tain reward than they do at bridge." 

The judgment of human nature is one of the strong 
points in a first-class player. Efridge has a peculiar 
faculty for searching out the mental weaknesses of a 
player, and an hour or two at the bridge table will ex- 
pose a person's character more thoroughly than any 
game known, not excepting poker. The cautious 
man is always passing no-trumpers over to his partner, 
only to have them made a spade, and the reckless 
man is always making it no-trump with two missing 
suits. The cunning man loves to pretend that he is 
finessing when he holds in his own hand all the cards 
finessed against. When he has the make, with eight 
sure tricks in his fingers, he always tells his dummy 
partner that they are " up " unless he lays down some- 
thing very strong. The candid man always shakes 
his head sadly when he has no honor in the suit his 
partner leads, and usually discards the very suit that 
the dealer is most anxious to know about. The sus- 



INTRODUCTION. Xlll 

picious man is always looking over the tricks to be 
sure that no one has revoked, and counting over the 
cards, four at a time, to be sure that he has not placed 
two tricks together as one. The quiet, gentlemanly 
man, who would not offend any person's feelings for 
the world, never disputes the score; never questions 
the amount that he is told he owes ; never blames his 
partner for anything, and is almost afraid to ask him 
if he has none of the suit to which he renounces. 
The greedy man always insists on taking care of the 
tricks, fights against the exaction of a penalty, but is 
always on the watch for his pound of flesh ; swears 
at his luck, glares at his partner, and is always in 
a rush to get to the second game before the first one 
is finished. The good-natured man, who plays only 
for amusement, and therefore very badly, sits and 
smiles quite contentedly, even when he drops tw^o or 
three tricks on a deal. He waives all penalties, and 
will even let you take back a revoke. The happy-go- 
lucky man, who takes life as it comes, keeps up a 
continual string of remarks during the play of the 
hand, as if he were trying to keep his courage up, or 
persuade himself that his make was not as bad as it 
looked. The inattentive man, who is always leading 
out of the wTong hand, forgetting how many trumps 



XIV FOSTER S BRIDGE MANUAL. 

are played and discarding the best of a suit because it 
is only a seven or eight. The vain man, who always 
gives his opinion of the play in a loud voice and tells 
what might have been in a manner that clearly sug- 
gests that it would have been, if he had had anythih] 
to do with it. It is his favorite boast that he never 
read a book on the game, and he is happily uncon- 
scious of how little he knows about it. The modest 
man is always apologizing to his partner, asking if he 
could have done better or played differently, and 
promising to pay more attention to the discards next 
time. 

The study of these indexes to character is most 
important to the bridge player, because a correct esti- 
mate of the peculiarities of the men with and against 
whom he plays is of the greatest value in difficult 
situations. It is useless to pass a doubtful make to a 
timid man, in the hope that he will take a chance on 
a no-trumper, and it is just as foolish to make it no- 
trump on a doubtful dummy hand when the dealer 
is a weak or inattentive player. Every person holds 
and plays his cards in a different way, but at the end 
of the hand his weakness and his strength are alike 
exposed, anil the opportunities that he missed or the 
chances that he took are evident to the whole table. 



INTRODUCTION. XV 

It is just the same with his personal characteristics, 
no matter how much he may try to conceal them or 
convey a false impression about them. After he has 
played a rubber or two his general make-up will be 
as much an open book to the others at the table as the 
thirteen cards which he has just played. 

But bridge is something more than an exposer of 
weaknesses. It is an educator, not only for the char- 
acter but for the judgment. It teaches patience in 
adversity and modesty in triumph. It drills us in 
making allowances for the shortcomings of others and 
shows us how liable we are to fall into error ourselves. 
It is one of the very best cures for diseases of the 
memory and attention, because no one can play a 
good game of bridge who allows his mind to wander, 
even for a moment, and the player who will train his 
powers of observation until he is able to note the fall 
of apparently unimportant cards will find his reward 
in the remarkable improvement of his memory for 
other things. 

Only one objection has been made to the game of 
bridge so far, and that is, that, like poker, it cannot 
be played for fun. This is manifestly untrue, because 
the cases are not similar. In poker, the betting is 
really the important part of the play, and the final 



xvi Foster's bridge manual. 



result does not depend so much upon the cards as 
upon the judgment with which they are bet upon. In 
bridge, the only thing which can be affected by the 
element of a stake is the make, and it is a popular 
fallacy to suppose that if one is playing for fun he will 
risk no-trumpers on almost anything, and will secure 
gains that would not have been possible had he been 
playing for money. If the hand really was a no- 
trumper and more was to be made out of it that way 
than with a declared trump, it must have been a hand 
that would have been made a no-trumper by any good 
player, either originally or on a pass, whether there 
was any stake on the game or not. The thoughtless 
player imagines that if he takes a chance on a no- 
trumper and it comes off, that he has in some mys- 
terious manner won tricks which were not in the cards, 
which is absurd, because no matter how much you 
may make it a no-trump, if you and your partner have 
not no-trump hands you will find you could have done 
better with a trump. The make does not win the odd 
trick. You must have the cards to support it, and 
you must be able to play them so as to get all there 
is in them. In poker, you can bet so high that the 
weakness of your hand will never be exposed, but in 
bridge you will have to show every one of your cards 



INTRODUCTION. XVll 

in the play, no matter how big a bluff you have made 
in the make. 

Whether it is bridge played for fun, or for such a 
moderate stake as twenty-five cents a hundred points, 
the real enjoyment of the game is in the play, and the 
settling up at the end is a very unimportant matter. 
Playing for high stakes, especially if they approach too 
closely to the limit that one can afford, will do more to 
spoil a person's game than anything else, for no one can 
do himself justice, either in his makes or in his play, 
while he is worrying about the amount he may lose on 
the game. He is not only throwing away his own 
money but he is robbing his partner, and every one 
should make it a rule never to play for such an amount 
that he cannot comfortably afford to pay for a loss of 
at least i,ooo points in an evening. 

Some of these days it is to be hoped that a satis- 
factory method of playing bridge in duplicate will be 
found, and when it is we shall have something which 
the world has long waited for, a perfect game of cards, 
in which skill and judgment are more important than 
luck, and in which the intellectual pleasure of the play 
is more attractive than any stake. 



DESCRIPTION OP THE GAME. 



The methods of bridge are neither as simple nor 
as universally known as those of whist, and for the 
benefit of those who have never played the game, or 
whose introduction to it has left some points in doubt, 
or who may wish to look up the laws governing cer- 
tain irregularities, the following description will be 
found particularly useful, heavy -faced type being used 
for divisions of the subject and for technical terms. 

Cards. Bridge is played with a full pack of fifty- 
two cards, ranking A KQJio 98765 43 2, the 
ace being the highest in play, but ranking below the 
deuce in cutting. It is always better to play with two 
packs, one of which is shuffled while the other is dealt. 

Players. The game is played by four persons, but 
five or six may form a table. When there are more 
than four candidates, the selection of the four who 
shall play the first rubber is decided by cutting. 
These four then cut again for partners and deal, 
choice of seats, and cards. 

Cutting for Partners, The proper method of cut- 
ting is to shuffle the pack thoroughly, and then spread 
it face downward on the table. Each person then 
draws a card, and turns it face upward in front of 
him. In cutting to form the table, the four drawing 



2 Foster's bridge manual. 

the lowest cards play the first rubber. The table 
formed, the pack is again shuffled and spread, or the 
cards first drawn may be laid aside, and the four who 
are to play the first rubber cut for partners, the two 
lowest pairing against the two highest, and the lowest 




SPREADING THE PACK. 



cut of the four having the choice of seats and cards, 
and getting the first deal. A lower cut always wins 
as against a higher, the king being the highest card, 
and the ace the lowest. 

In Case of Ties, either in making up the table or 
in cutting for partners, if two persons draw cards of 
equal value, and those cards are the highest, no new 
cut is necessary if there are six candidates for the 
table, because both the high cards are out. If five 
only are cutting, the two ties must cut again to de- 
cide which one stays out. If the two highest cards 
are a tie in cutting for partners, they play together 
without further cutting. 

If two persons cut cards of equal value when draw- 
ing for partners, and these cards are the lowest, they 
are partners, but they must cut again to decide which 
shall have the first deal. For instance : — 



DESCRIPTION OF THE GAME. 



First cut is 






Second cut is 






The two sevens are partners, and the three of clubs 
deals the first hand, and has the choice of seats and 
cards. 

If the ties are intermediate cards, they must cut 
again, to decide which shall be the partner of the one 
that cut the lowest card, but no matter what they cut 
in deciding the tie, the original low cannot lose his 
right to the first deal. For instance : — 

First cut is 







Second cut is 



♦ 
♦ ^ 




The deuce of clubs plays with the seven of hearts, 
but the heart seven, being the original low, still has 
the first deal and choice of seats and cards. 

When three persons cut cards of equal value, they 
must cut again to decide which shall be the partner 



FOSTER S BRIDGE MANUAL. 



of the fourth. If the odd card was higher than the 
three ties, the two lowest of the new cut will be part- 
ners, and the lower of the two will have the first deal. 
But, if the odd card was lower than the three ties, the 
player cutting it will take the first deal, and the lowest 
of the new cut will be his partner. If there is a second 
tie, it must be decided by cutting again as beforCo 
For instance : — 
First cut is 




Second cut is 






Third cut is 





The five of diamonds has the first deal, and the 
nine of clubs is his partner. 

When the odd card is the original low : — 
First cut is 



^ 


^ 












^ 9? 




«!• ♦ 


♦ 


^ 












^ 9 




•> 


♦ 


^ 












^ 9 




4- ^ 



Second cut is 











9 ^ 



DESCRIPTION OF THE GAME. 5 

The five of clubs, in the first cut, has the first deal, 
and choice of seats and cards. The spade ace is his 
partner. 

The principal thing to remember in cutting is, 
that a second cut does nothing but decide ties, and 
that if a cut which is not in the tie is the lowest in 
the first cut, it cannot be deprived of its rights. 

Position at the Table. For convenience in speak- 
ing of the various players at the table, they are usually 
designated by their positions in the first trick of the 
deal. The dealer and his partner, the dummy, sit 
opposite each other. The leader, or eldest hand, is 
on the dealer's left, and the pone, or leader's partner, 
is on the dealer's right. 

Dummy. 



Leader. A B Pone 




Dealer. 

In illustrative hands, showing the actual play of the 
cards, the letters A, Y, B, Z, are usually placed at the 
head of the columns to indicate the leader, second, 
third,- and fourth hand on the first trick. 

Dealing, The dealer having selected his seat and 
cards, the dummy proceeds to shufifle the other pack, 
and then places it on his right hand, ready for the 
next deal. The dealer presents the pack to the pone 
to be cut, and at least four cards must be left in each 



6 Foster's bridge manual. 

packet. The part of the pack which is lifted off 
must always be placed nearer the dealer. Beginning 
with the player on his left, the dealer distributes the 
cards, one at a time, to each player in rotation, until 
the entire pack has been given out. No trump is 
turned up, and there are no misdeals in bridge. If 
any irregularity occurs, the same dealer must deal 
again with the same cards. 

Irregularities in the DeaL If a card is found faced 
in the pack there must be a new deal, but if a card is 
faced in the operation of dealing, the adversaries may 
consult, and they have the choice of demanding a new 
deal or letting it proceed. If the adversaries of the 
dealer expose any card, the dealer may demand a new 
deal. In either case the claim for a new deal must 
be made before the player asking for it has looked at 
any of his cards. 

After the deal is complete and before a trump is 
declared, if the dealer or his partner expose a card, 
either of the adversaries, without consultation with 
his partner, may claim a new deal. If either adver- 
sary of the dealer exposes a card before it is time to 
lead, his partner forfeits the right to go over or to re- 
double, and the dealer may either call the card exposed 
or, if the pone has exposed the card demand that the 
suit shall not be led. 

Each player should carefully count his hand to see 
that he has thirteen cards, because if he has not his 
right number when he plays to the first trick the deal 
stands good. If a player deals out of turn or with the 



DESCRIPTION OF THE GAME. 



7 



wrong cards, the error may be corrected at any time 
before the first card is led or played, but not after 
that. A player is not allowed to cut, shuffle, or deal 
for his partner, without the permission of the oppo- 
nents. If the dealer gives two cards to one player he 
must correct the error before dealing another card or 
there must be a new deal. If the dealer stops to 
count the cards already dealt to any player, or counts 
those remaining in the pack, there must be a new 
deal. [This rule is very seldom insisted on.] If at 
any time the pack is proved to be incorrect or imper- 
fect there must be a new deal with a complete pack, 
but all previous scores made with the imperfect pack 
stand good. A pack is incomplete when it has less 
than fifty-two cards. , It is imperfect when two cards 
are duplicates, or any card is so marked or torn that it 
can be recognized by the back. 

Scoring. No one has as yet invented a bridge 
marker, and the game must be kept on a sheet of 



DIAGRAM A. 



WE. THEY. 
Honors. 



Points. 



DIAGRAM B. 



WE. 
Points. [ Honors. 



THEY. 
Points. Honors. 



8 Foster's bridge manual. 

paper or score-slip ruled for the purpose. There are 
two forms of scoring sheet in common use, one having 
a single column for the trick points and honors, which 
are scored one above the other, as shown in diagram 
A. The other has separate columns for trick points 
and honors, as shown in diagram B. 

It is usual to write the words We and They 
at the head of the score sheet. We referring to the 
side that keeps the score. Some persons prefer to 
write the name of one player on each side, but We 
and They is the better form. The score should 
be kept with a heavy blue pencil, capable of making a 
mark so distinct that the state of the game may be 
easily seen by any player at the table. The method 
of recording the score will be explained later. 

Object of the Game. While there are two separate 
scores to be played for, trick points and honors, it is 
only the trick points that win the games, and these 
points are made by attaching a certain value to each 
trick above six w^hich is taken by the same partners. 
The first six tricks taken by one side are called a 
book, and do not count, but every trick beyond six is 
worth so many points, according to the suit which 
is trumps for that deal. At the end of the hand the 
side having the majority of the tricks announces it as 
''Two by cards," ''Three by cards," or whatever it 
may be. This number is multiplied by the value of 
the trump suit and the result is placed to the credit 
of the players, their adversaries getting nothing for 
trick score. As soon as either side reaches or passes 



DESCRIPTION OF THE GAME. 9 

thirty, that wins the game, but no matter how much 
beyond thirty they may go on the deal which carries 
them to thirty, everything they make is credited to 
them. For instance : The dealer's score is twenty-six, 
and he makes seventy-two on that hand, although he 
wants only four to put him out. This brings his total 
to ninety-eight, which is all credited to him, and as it 
is more than thirty a line is drawn under it to show 
that the game is won. 

Rubbers, Three games of thirty or more points 
each constitute a rubber, but if the first two games 
are won by the same partners, the third is not played. 
The side winning the rubber adds one hundred points 
to its score as a bonus and then the total number of 
points made by each side for tricks and honors is 
added up, and the lower score deducted from the 
higher, the difference being the value of the rubber 
in points. An example of the process will be given 
later on. 

Making the Trump. The chief peculiarity about 
bridge is the method of making the trump. After 
the cards are dealt, the dealer examines his hand and 
announces the suit that shall be the trump for that 
deal, or he may elect to play without any trump suit. 
In this choice he is guided by the values attached to 
the tricks when certain suits are trumps. As already 
stated, the first six taken by one side do not count, 
but each trick above that number counts toward 
game according to the following table of trick 
values : — • 



lo Foster's bridge manual. 



When there is no trump, each trick 

counts, 12 points. 

When hearts are trumps, each trick 

counts, 8 points. 

When diamonds are trumps, each trick 

counts, ...... 6 points. . 

When clubs are trumps, each trick 

counts, 4 points. 

When spades are trumps, each trick 

counts, 2 points. 

As the game is thirty points, it will take three 
tricks at no trump, four tricks in hearts, or five in 
diamonds, to win the game. It is impossible to win a 
game in one deal in either of the black suits. The 
reasons which prompt the players to select one suit in 
preference to another will be fully explained further 
on. It will be sufficient for the present general de- 
scription of the game to say that he will be influenced 
in his decision chiefly by two considerations ; to win 
as many points as he can, if he has the cards to do it ; 
to save the game if he is too weak to hope to win 
anything. 

Honors. In addition to the possibilities of winning 
or losing the game by the trick score, there is another 
consideration in the selection of the trump, and that 
is the value of the honors the hand contains. There 
are five honors in bridge, the A K Q J lo of the 
trump suit, so that one side or the other must always 
have a majority. In a no-trump declaration, the four 



DESCRIPTION OF THE GAME. I I 

aces are the only honors. As between two suits of 
equal numerical value, the odc containing the greater 
number of honors will usually be selected. Four 
hearts with three honors is a better trump than five 

— ^^amonds without an honor, because the chances are 
that, even if you win the odd trick in diamonds, the 
adversaries will make a large honor score against you. 
The majority of honors, three out of five, is called 
simple honors, and is equal in value to two tricks in 
that suit. Four honors, between partners, is equal to 
four tricks, and five honors is equal to five tricks. 
Holding four or five in one hand is much more valu- 

. able, as will be seen from the'following table : — 

Table OF Honor Values. 

If the trump suit is . 

Three Honors count 

Four Honors count . 

Five Honors count . 

Four in one hand count 

Four in one hand, 5 th in partner's 18 36 54 72 

Five in one hand .... 20 40 60 80 

It will facilitate the recollection of this table if the 
value of the spade suit is learnt by heart, because 
each suit increases in value over the one below it by 
the unit of value of the spade suit, and if one knows 
all the spade values, it is a simple matter to remember 
that clubs are worth twice as much as spades, dia- 
monds three times as much, and hearts four times. 



. . ♦ 


* 





9 


• • 4 


8 


12 


16 


. . 8 


16 


24 


32 


. . 10 


20 


30 


40 


. . 16 


.^2 


48 


64 



12 Foster's bridge manual. 



When there is no trump suit : 

Three aces between partners are worth 30 
Four aces between partners are worth 40 
Four aces in one hand are worth . . 100 

If each side has two aces there is no honor score. 

In claiming honor scores, it is usual to name the 
value, after stating the number of tricks won, as : 
^^ Three by cards and twenty-four in honors," or; 
*^ Two by cards and thirty aces." 

The honor score has no effect on winning or losing 
the game, and it is always put down in a separate 
column from the trick points. It is quite common 
for one side to make the score for tricks while their 
adversaries score honors, but the honor score has a 
great effect on the ultimate value of the rubber. It 
sometimes happens that one pair have such a large 
honor score that they have the majority of points al- 
though they lose the rubber game. The additional 
bonus of one hundred points for winning the rubber 
is supposed to prevent this, but it does not always 
do so. 

Slams. If one side wins twelve out of thirteen 
tricks in any deal, it is called a Little Slam, and 
twenty points are added to the score in the honor 
column. Winning all thirteen tricks is called Grand 
Slam and forty points are added to the honor column. 

Chicane. When a trump suit is declared, if any 
player has no trump in his hand it is called chicane, 
and adds to his partner's honor column, or reduces the 



DESCRIPTION OF THE GAME. 1 3 

amount of the adversaries' honor score, by the value 
of simple honors. For instance : one side had four 
honors in hearts, worth 32, but one adversary had no 
trump, so the honor score must be reduced by the 
value of simple honors in hearts, which is 16, leaving 
16 to be scored. If two players have no trump, they 
being adversaries, the one offsets the other. If two 
partners have no trump, the adversaries' honor score 
is reduced by twice the value of simple honors. 

Going over, or doubling, has no effect on any of the 
scores that go in the honor column. 
. Passing the Make. Although the dealer has the 
first say as to making the trump he will seldom make 
it a black suit unless the score is sufficiently advanced 
for him to be reasonably certain of winning the game 
on the deal, without any assistance from his partner. 
If he is not strong enough for a no-trumper or a red 
suit, he should pass the make to his partner. This is 
usually done by some such expression as : *^ You make 
it, partner " ; '^ Left to the partner " ; or, ^* I pass it." 

The dealer is not allowed to consult with the dummy 
as to whether or not he shall pass it, and in the best 
clubs it is the rule that the dummy shall not look at his 
cards until the dealer has either made the trump or 
passed it. When asked to make the trump, the 
dummy must decide on something, as he cannot pass 
the make back again. He should know that the 
dealer is probably weak in the red suits and that his 
strength in the black ones is problematical. If the 
dummy is not strong enough to make it no trump or 



14 FOSTERS BRIDGE MANUAL, 

red himself, he can make it a spade or a club, spades 
always if he is very weak ; not in the hopes of winning 
anything on the hand, but to prevent a big score from 
being made against him. Spades are a sort of touch- 
down for safety ; to lose as little as possible on a bad 
hand. 

Irregularities in the Mal^e. If the dummy names 
a trump before being asked to do so by the dealer, 
either of the adversaries may, without consultation 
with his partner, demand that the erroneous declara- 
tion shall stand, or that there shall be a new deal. 
Should the dummy say to the dealer ; '^ You miake it," 
or words to that effect, either of the adversaries may, 
without consultation, claim a new deal or compel the 
dummy to make the trump. Should either of the ad- 
versaries of the dealer make a declaration, the dealer 
may look at his cards and either claim a new deal or 
proceed as if nothing had been said. 

Doubling. The trump suit having been named, the 
adversaries cannot change the make in any way, but 
they can enhance the value of the tricks by doubling. 
Suppose the dealer announces hearts, having five, the 
eldest hand may have seven or eight hearts and some 
good cards beside. Holding any cards w^ith which 
he feels reasonably certain that he, and not the dealer, 
will make the odd trick, it is to his interest to make 
the tricks as valuable as possible, and he immediately 
says : '^ I go over." This means that he will double 
the value of the tricks, making each one above the 
book in hearts worth i6 points instead of 8 only. 



DESCRIPTION OF THE GAME. . I 5 

Suppose the dealer or his partner makes it no trump, 
having only one missing suit, and the eldest hand has 
that suit, seven of them headed by the A K O J. It 
is almost a certainty that he will catch the ten and 
make all seven of that suit, which is the odd trick at 
least, even if his partner has nothing. With such a 
hand and the lead he would, of course, go over the no- 
trumper, making each trick over the book worth 24, 
instead of 12 only. The pone cannot go over so 
freely, because he has not the lead, and even with 
seven sure tricks he might not get into the lead until 
the dealer has made seven or eight tricks in other 
suits. It is a very common practice to go over spade 
makes, which are a confession of weakness. The 
dealer's side is trying to get off as cheaply as possible 
by losing only two points on each trick. The adver- 
saries, having the stronger hands, naturally wish to 
make the tricks worth as much as possible, and they go 
over the spade, making each trick worth four points. 
Order of Doubling. The order in which this doub- 
ling process must be conducted is very important. 
After the trump has been announced, the eldest hand 
has the first say as to whether or not he will double. 
If he doubles, he says : ^^ I go over," but if lie does 
not wish to do so he must not play until he has ascer- 
tained whether or not his partner wishes to go over. 
The usual form of the question is : ^^ Shall I play } " 
That is, '' Shall we proceed to play this hand for the 
ordinary points, or do you want to double.^" If the 
pone says, '* If you please," or uses any similar form 



1 6 Foster's bridge manual. 

of assent, the eldest hand proceeds by leading any card 
he pleases and the play of the hand begins. If the 
eldest hand leads without asking his partner's permis- 
sion to play, the pone cannot double. 

Going Back. If either the eldest hand or the pone 
doubles, it is the privilege of the player who named 
the trump to double him again, the usual expression 
being ; ^^ I go back." If he does not wish to go back, 
he says ; ^^ Enough," and his partner may then go 
back, or signify that he also has enough. If neither 
go back, the eldest hand leads. 

If either the leader or the dummy goes back, mak- 
ing the tricks four times their original value, the 
player who first went over can go back again, making 
the value eight times that shown on the table on 
page 10. If he does not wish to pursue it further, he 
says, ^'Enough," and his partner may take it up for 
him. If neither will go on, the play proceeds. 

The principle of going over is, that the one who is 
to play first shall have the first say as to doubling, 
and that the one who made the trump shall have the 
first say as to going back. When either is satisfied 
with things as they are, he must ask his partner if he 
also is satisfied before proceeding to play. If any 
doubling is done, the same principles apply to going 
back ; the one who doubled having the first privilege 
of going back if he is gone over, and having to ask 
his partner if he is content. 

Doubling has no effect on any of the scores in the 
honor column. 



DESCRIPTION OF THE GAME. 1/ 

The doubling process may l^e continued indefinitely, 
but there should be a rule that it should not go be- 
yond eight times the original value of the tricks. 

Irregularities in Doubling. If the pone doubles 
before the eldest hand asks permission to play, the 
player who made the trump shall have the right to 
say whether or not the go over shall stand. If the 
pone asks the eldest hand, *^ Shall I play," or uses 
any similar expression to show that he does not intend 
to double, that prevents the eldest hand from doub- 
ling. If any player goes over or goes back, out of his 
proper turn, the adversary who made the last declara- 
tion has the right to say whether or not the irregular 
go-over shall stand. 

The Dummy, The trump suit announced and the 
value of the tricks settled, the eldest hand leads any 
card he pleases, and as soon as that card is on the 
table the dummy spreads his thirteen cards face up- 
ward on the table, the trump suit, if any, always on 
his right, and the others arranged red and black alter- 
nately. After laying down his cards in this manner 
the dummy takes no further part in the play, and is 
not allowed to make any remarks or suggestions or 
even to touch a card unless asked by the dealer to 
play it. 

Should the dealer renounce to any suit, say hearts, 
the dummy should at once ask the question ; '' No 
hearts, partner } " If this question is asked before 
the trick is turned and quitted, it saves the revoke, if 
one has been made. Dumni}^ should also call his 



1 8 Foster's bridge manual. 

partner's attention to the fact that he is about to lead 
from the wrong hand, or has done so. If the dummy 
calls the dealer's attention to any penalty to which he 
is entitled, such as for a lead out of turn or a revoke 
made by the adversaries, the dealer loses his right to 
exact such penalty. After the play of the hand is 
finished, the dummy may call attention to any error in 
the count of tricks or the score for honors. Up to 
the time that the eldest hand leads and dummy's 
cards are exposed, the dummy has equal rights with 
the dealer in calling attention to any irregularity on 
the part of the adversaries. 

The Play. The eldest hand having led and dummy 
exposed his cards, the dealer must play from the 
dummy's hand or name the card which he wishes, 
and the rest of the play proceeds exactly as at 
dummy whist, the dealer gathering and stacking all 
the tricks taken by himself and the dummy, while 
either of the adversaries gathers all the tricks taken 
by their side. These tricks should be so placed that 
any player at the table may know, without asking, 
how many tricks have been won by either side at any 




stage of the play. The usual method of gathering 
the tricks is to lay them one upon the other at a 
slight angle, as shown in the diagram, until six have 



DESCRIPTION OF THE GAME. 1 9 

been taken in. These six should then be gathered 
into one, called the book, and any further tricks 
should be laid out as the first were, so that they may 
be readily counted. 

The rules for play are the same as in whist. The 
highest card played, of the suit led, wins the trick and 
trumps win all other suits. The winner of one trick 
leads for the next trick. Any player, having none of 
a suit led, may either trump it or throw away any 
card of another suit, which is called discarding. Any 
player may ask what the trump suit is, and the last 
trick turned and quitted may be seen, but no other 
except the cards still face up on the table. 

Irregularities in Play, There is no penalty if the 
dealer exposes any or all of his cards, but if either of 
the adversaries expose a card, either by dropping it on 
the table face upward, playing two or more cards to 
the same trick, or leading out of turn, such cards 
must be left on the table, and are liable to be called 
by the dealer at any time, provided the play of that 
card does not necessitate a revoke. If the exposed 
card can be got rid of in the course of play, no penalty 
remains. 

If the dealer leads out of the wrong hand there is 
no penalty, and if all four have played to the trick 
the error cannot be corrected. In some clubs a lead 
out of the wrong hand by the dealer is punished by 
calling a suit, an absurd and unjust penalty for a very 
trifling piece of inattention. The dealer gives no in- 
formation of any benefit to his partner, who is sup- 



20 Foster's bridge manual. 



posed to be both blind and deaf, yet the penalty is 
often much more severe in its consequences than that 
for the revoke. To say that a gentleman would pur- 
posely lead out of the wrong hand if there were no 
penalty for it is as foolish as it would be to say that 
dummy would revoke on purpose, as there is no 
penalty for that. 

If the adversary of the dealer leads out of turn, the 
dealer may call a suit from the one that should have 
led ; or, if it was the turn of neither of them to lead, 
from the one that first obtains the lead. Those who 
have followed to a false lead of this kind may take 
back their cards without penalty, but if all have 
played to the trick, it is too late to correct the error. 

If the third hand plays before the second, the 
fourth may play before his partner. If the fourth 
hand, being the adversary of the dealer, plays before 
his partner, the second hand may be called upon to 
win, or not to win, the trick. 

If the dealer plays a card and removes his fingers 
from it, it is too late to amend his play. If he 
touches a card in dummy's hand he is not obliged to 
play that card, provided he does not draw it apart 
from the other cards, but if he draws it toward the 
centre of the table it must be played, whether he has 
removed his fingers from it or not. When dummy's 
cards are properly spread so that each can be dis- 
tinctly seen, th^re should be no excuse for pulling 
out one card and then replacing it to play another. 
Some players use the chess expression when they 



DESCRIPTION OF THE GAME. 21 

find it necessary to re-arrange dummy's cards; ''I 
adjust/' meaning that they are not playing. 

If any player, except the dummy, forgets to play to 
a trick, and the error is not discovered until he has 
played to the next trick, the adversaries may claim a 
new deal. If any player, except dummy, plays two 
cards to one trick and the mistake is not discovered 
until the end of the hand, the player in error is respon- 
sible for any revokes he may have made. If the error 
is discovered during the play of the hand, the tricks 
may be searched for the superfluous card and the card 
restored to its owner, who is nevertheless responsible 
for any revokes he may have made in the meantime. 

// two or more cards are played at once, the dealer 
shall have the right to call whichever he chooses to the 
current trick, provided it does not constitute a revoke. 
The card which is not played to the trick is exposed. 
- The Revoke. A revoke is a. renounce in error, 
which is not corrected in time. A revoke may be 
corrected at any time before the trick in which it 
occurs is turned and quitted, provided the player in 
error, or his partner, whether in his right turn or other- 
wise, has not led or played to the following trick. If 
the player who corrects himself in time to save a re- 
voke is an adversary of the dealer, he may be called 
upon by the dealer to play the highest or lowest card 
he holds of the suit led, or he may be required to allow 
the card played in error to remain on the table as an 
exposed card, but both penalties cannot be enforced 
against him. 



22 Foster's bridge manual. 



No penalty can be exacted from the dealer if he 
corrects himself in time to save the revoke. It is not 
too late if the dummy has asked him before the trick 
is turned and quitted. There is no penalty if dummy 
revokes. 

The revoke must be claimed before the cards are 
cut for the following deal, or, if there is no deal follow- 
ing, before the score is agreed to and entered on the 
score sheet. 

The penalty for a Revoke is the loss of three tricks 
for every revoke made. These tricks are taken from 
the revoking side and added to that of the adversaries. 
The revoking side cannot go game on the hand, but 
must stop at 28. Tricks taken for the revoke penalty 
do not count toward slam or little slam. 

Abandoned Hands. If either of the dealer's adver- 
saries throws his cards on the table, face upward, all 
those cards are exposed and liable to be called. But 
if the dealer says : ^'Balance," or, '^ I take the rest," 
or words to that effect, the adversaries of the dealer 
are not liable to have their cards called if they expose 
them under the impression that the dealer's claim is 
correct, when it is not. 

If any player looks back further than the last trick 
turned and quitted, the penalty, is the same as for a 
lead out of turn. 

Scoring, After the play of the hand is finished, 
the trick score is put down in the column provided for 
it under the name of '^points," and the honor score, 
if any, is put down under the head of '^honors." As 



DESCRIPTION OF THE GAME. 23 

soon as either side reaches or passes 30 points, a line 
is drawn under the trick score to show that the game 
is at an end. If the same players win the second 
game the third is not played. In order to show how 
the game is kept, observe how the following results 
are put down on the score sheet. 





We. 




They. 


Tricks 


Honors. 


Tricks. Honors 


18 


24 


• • 


• • 


• ■ 


• • 


24 


16 


• • 


• • 


12 


4 


• • 


• • 


24 


30 


24 


■32 


• • 


• • 


• • 


• • 


56 


104 


42 


56 


116 

254 

370 
98 


154 



272 

We dealt the first hand, made it diamonds and 
won three by cards and four by honors, worth 18 and 
24. Then They made it hearts, winning three by 
cards and simple honors, worth 24 and 16. Then 
We dealt again, passed it to the partner, who made 
it spades, which was gone over by the other side, who 
made three by cards and simple honors. As doubling 
does not affect the value of the honors, that score 



24 FOSTER S BRIDGE MANUAL. 

stands at 4, but the trick score is worth 12, which 
wins the first game for them, and a Hne is drawn 
under it. 

In the next deal, They made it no trump and 
won two by cards and thirty aces, 24 and 30. Then 
We dealt, and on a passed make named clubs, win- 
ning six by cards, little slam, and five honors, worth 
24, 20 and 20. From the 40 points that go in the 
honor column 8 must be deducted, because one of 
the adversaries had no trump, chicane in clubs, which 
is worth simple honors. In the next deal. They 
made it hearts, scored seven by cards, worth 56, four 
honors in one hand, 64, and grand slam, 40. This 
wins the game and rubber. 

The scores of both sides are now added up, and 100 
points bonus added to the side that won the rubber. 
This 100 points is usually added to the total of the 
honor score made by the winning partners, and then 
carried under the total of their trick score. In the 
example given, the honor score is actually 154, to 
which 100 is added, making it 254, which is the figure 
placed under the footing of the trick score. From the 
grand total that follows, the 98 points made by the 
losing side must be deducted, and the remaining 272 
points is the value of the rubber. 

Irregularities in Scoring. If any error has been 
made in the trick score, attention must be called to it 
and it must be proved and corrected before the end of 
the game in which it occurs, and that game is not at an 
end until the trump has been declared in the first deal 



DESCRIPTION OF THE GAME. 25 

of the following game ; or, if there is no following game, 
until the final score of the rubber has been agreed to. 

If any error has been made in the honor column, 
whether for honors, chicane, or slams, the mistake 
may be proved and corrected at any time before the 
final score of the rubber has been agreed to. 

Players should be careful not to disturb the tricks 
they have taken in until they have seen the score 
properly put down, because it is not uncommon for 
one side to imagine' they have taken the odd trick 
when they have not, or to claim three by cards when 
they have two only. If the cards have been bunched, 
it is very difi(icult to prove such an error, especially if 
the adversaries decline to make any admissions as to 
how the hand was played. 



THE MAKES. 



The make is the most confusing thing for the be- 
ginner and the most difficult for the expert. It sounds 
easy to say that a person shall deal the cards and then 
pick out the trump that is best suited to his hand, but 
in practice it is a very difficult matter to do this all 
through a rubber without making one or two bad mis- 
takes. The trump that will suit your hand may not 
suit your partner's, and it may turn out that the suit 
which looks very strong as a trump would have been 
much better as a plain suit, if one of the weaker suits 
in your hand had been made a trump to support it. 

In his first efforts, the beginner is likely to be in- 
fluenced too much by such results, which are often a 
matter of luck. If he happens to hit his partner's 
hand about right, he will think it was a good make, 
whereas it may have been a very bad one. If he does 
not hit his partner's hand, he will be wishing he had 
made it something else, although his make was quite 
right in principle, and the next time he deals he will 
be doing something foolish in the hope that his luck 
in finding his partner will continue, or in the belief 
that as his make turned out badly last time, he had 
better try something else this time. 

The great principle to be kept in mind by the bridge 
26 



THE MAKES. 2/ 

player is, that the make which will be right in the 
majority of cases is the one that should be made in 
all cases. If the probabilities are, that a certain make 
will turn out well in eight cases out of ten, and in the 
first rubber you happen to hit two cases in which it 
does not work, do not let that discourage you and do 
not get impatient, because it is more than probable that 
the same make will turn out well the next eight times 
you try it. No one can pick out the best make every 
time, but the good players hit it oftener than the poor 
players, and the consequent percentage in their favor 
is the principal cause of their success in winning 
rubbers. Good makes are quite as important as good 
play. 

The complication which is most difficult for the 
beginner is the element of passing. If he were com- 
pelled to make the trump from his own hand the 
problem would seem to have some limitations ; but 
when he is told that with or without certain things in 
his hand, or under certain endlessly varying conditions 
of the score, that he should make it himself, and that 
with certain apparently insignificant changes in these 
conditions that he should pass the make to his partner, 
he gets hopelessly confused. He imagines all sorts of 
possibilities and improbabilities in his partner's hand, 
and his judgment is often warped by the results he has 
observed in previous deals. Twice in succession he has 
made it a diamond, only to find his partner had a game 
hand at no trump. The third time, when he should 
have gone right along and made it diamonds again, he 



28 Foster's bridge manual. 

passes it, and his partner has a spade hand. Three 
times in one rubber he makes it no trump, having two 
aces and a third suit stopped, and finds his partner 
with nothing at all. Next time he holds a hand like 
that he is discouraged, and passes it. The dummy 
names the suit in which the dealer has nothing, and 
they make three by cards in clubs, with simple honors, 
when they might just as easily have made three by 
cards at no trump, with thirty aces. 

When you take a long chance on a make and it 
comes off, thanks to your partner's good cards, just 
stop long enough to think what the result would' have 
been if one of the adversaries had held dummy's cards : 
and when you know your make was sound but turned 
out unfortunately, look carefully at the cards held by 
the adversaries and ask yourself whether it is probable 
that you will find such a combination against you 
another time. A little calm retrospect of this kind 
will often show you that your success was due more 
to good luck than to good management in one case, 
and that your failure was very improbable in the other, 
although it happened. 

Some persons do not possess the judgment neces- 
sary for successful makes ; perhaps because they are 
too rash, perhaps because they are too timid. Some- 
times because they are too impulsive to give the situa- 
tion the thought it- demands, sometimes because they 
overlook considerations of the utmost importance. 
How often we see a person make it no trump with a 
missing suit, when he has a sure game hand in hearts ! 



THE MAKES. 29 

How common it is to see if made a diamond, when a 
no-trumper is the only thing that will win the rubber ! 

The mental deficiencies which are found in the in- 
dividual before he comes to the bridge table cannot 
be made up by teaching, but the powers he has may 
be directed into the proper channels, and he may at 
least be shown how to use to the best advantage what 
reasoning faculties he has. Reading a book will not 
overcome natural timidity, nor will it cure inherent 
overconfidence, but the presentation of certain facts 
may encourage the timid man to regard certain hands 
as better than he thought they were, and may result 
in his passing fewer no-trump hands over to his part- 
ner to have them made a spade. He may still pass 
some, but he will improve. Repeatedly calling atten- 
tion to certain dangers may induce the rash man to 
stop and think it over before he jumps to conclusions 
and makes it no trump on one suit, or goes over a spade 
make when he wants only two points to win the 
game. 

It is impossible for any one to lay down rules which 
will enable a person to select the best make on every 
hand and it would be absurd to attempt to enumerate 
all the exceptions which make a declaration good or 
bad according to the state of the score, the character 
of the partner who is to play the hand, the proba- 
bilities of what it will be made if the make is passed, 
or what will be led if one takes a chance. The reader 
must be content if he finds in the following pages a 
few general principles which may be relied upon as 



30 FOSTER S BRIDGE MANUAL. 

those that will win in the long run if, they are con- 
sistently followed, although they may fail disastrously 
in certain cases. Do not be discouraged if, after read- 
ing this chapter, your first make goes all to pieces and 
you find that almost anything else you might have 
done would have been better. The man who tries to 
sail a boat just after reading a book on navigation 
usually has to do a lot of baling. To understand a 
principle requires ordinary intelligence ; to apply it 
successfully requires long practice. 

ORIGINAL MAKES. 

There are two distinct classes of makes : original 
and passed, each being governed by entirely different 
considerations. It will greatly simplify the subject if 
these are considered separately, beginning with the 
original make, which is always by the dealer. 

The Object of the Make is to secure the greatest 
number of points possible with the cards. These 
points go into two different columns, one for trick 
score and one for honors, but only the trick points 
win the games. Some very good players pay no at- 
tention to the honor column, and insist that the points 
that win the games and rubbers are the only ones 
worth considering, honors being largely a matter of 
luck or bonus. Others contend that inasmuch as 
they are playing for points, the ultimate value of the 
rubber is the main thing, and points in either column 
are not to be despised. The reader will soon be able 



ORIGINAL MAKES. 3 I 

to judge for himself as to the respective merits of 
these opinions. 

Three Things govern the Make: The strength 
of the hand, the score, and the honors in one suit.* 
These are usually taken into consideration in that 
order. If you have four aces and three kings, it is 
a no-trumper, no matter what the score is, or how 
many honors you have in any suit. With weaker 
cards, and especially with missing suits, the score 
is a very important consideration. When it is not a 
question of making any particular score, but simply 
of winning or losing the odd trick or so, the honor 
column must be , considered, because you can often 
afford to risk the loss of the odd trick if you are cer- 
tain of adding thirty or forty points to your honor 
column. 

Before going into these complications, we shall 
look at the subject in a general way with a view to 
finding out what would be the standard minimum 
hands on which certain declarations should be made 
by a player who was not expert enough to pay close 
attention to the complications of the score. 

Making to the Score is a very difficult thing for the 
beginner, and, important as it is, he should not trouble 
himself too much about it until he has had some ex- 
perience in the regular course of makes, so the 
niceties of playing to the score have been left to a 
later chapter in this work. If your partner finds 
fault with you, and tells you, in a loud tone of voice, 
that you should have done so and so, ^^ at the score," 



32 FOSTER S BRIDGE MANUAL. 

you can tell him that you make no pretensions to be- 
ing expert enough to play to the score yet awhile and 
that he should be very glad if your makes are other- 
wise sound, which is something that cannot be said 
of one beginner in a thousand. 

The hand should always be examined for the possi- 
bilities of the most valuable scores first, beginning 
with no-trumpers, and going down the line to hearts 
and diamonds, leaving the black suits for the last, as 
a choice between a declaration and a pass. Atten- 
tion must again be called to the fact that the follow- 
ing suggestions are for makes in general, and not for 
difficult situations in the score. With the beginner 
the score should be simply an after consideration, 
and should act as a check or modification of a make 
which has been determined upon on the merits of the 
cards alone. Settle on the make first, but look at the 
score before you announce it. 

No=trumpers. There should always be a fixed 
standard for a no-trump make ; some scale which a 
player can use to measure his cards with, so as to 
mark out certain limits between which a no-trumper 
is probably the best make. He need not rush off 
with a declaration of no trump the moment he finds 
his hand is in that class, but should proceed to ex- 
amine the merits of the red suits in order to be sure 
that he has not something even better than a no- 
trumper. One of the most common faults with the 
beginner is in allowing himself to be carried away 
with the idea that every strong hand is a no-trumper, 



NO-TRUMP MAKES. 33 

whereas the best no-trumpers are usually average 
hands, in which there is no great strength ^nd the 
selection of a suit is doubtful. Hands that have one 
very strong red suit in them will often pay better 
with a trump declaration than as no-trumpers; partly 
because they are safer, and partly because of the 
honor score. 

With Pour Aces the hand should invariably be 
made no trump, no matter what the rest of the hand 
may be or how the score stands. There can be 
nothing better in a red suit than a no-trumper with 
a hundred aces. 

With Three Aces the hand should be a no-trumper 
unless there is something remarkable in the red suits, 
which promises at least two more tricks and a better 
score than thirty aces. The partner must not be for- 
gotten, and if you can see only six tricks at no trump, 
but seven with a red suit, you should count on your 
partner for two probable tricks, that is, one third of 
those you cannot make. These two tricks in his 
hand will be much more valuable at 1 2 points each 
than at either 6 or 8. The principal exception to 
making it no trump with three aces is, when you 
have a hand which is strong enough to go game with 
a declared trump, and have a weak suit which you 
are afraid of at no trump. With only 8 points to go, 
for instance, and holding seven clubs to the ace, two 
other aces, and a missing suit, it is foolish to risk a 
no-trumper when two tricks in clubs wins the game. 
You are much more likely to find the missing suit and 



34 FOSTERS BRIDGE MANUAL. 

some of the honors in your ace suits against you, 
than you are to find five ckibs in one hand. 

Missing Suits are so called when they are so short 
or weak that you cannot possibly take a trick in 
them. 

With Two Aces, and protection in a third suit, such 
as K Q X, K J X, K x x, Q J lo, the make should be 
no trump, even if the fourth suit is very weak, or en- 
tirely missing. Do not forget that the fewer cards 
you have of a suit the more chance there is that your 
partner will have some protection in it, and it is better 
for you to have a singleton than five cards to the 
nine, because, with so many in your hand, if it is the 
adversaries' suit your partner may be short, and his 
cards, even if they are honors, may be led through 
and killed. 

Protection in a suit is an almost certain trick. 

In making it no trump on two aces, it is a better 
make if neither of the aces is alone, because then it 
cannot be forced out of your hand on the first round 
of the suit. It is sometimes very important to be able 
to pass one or two rounds of an adverse suit by hold- 
ing up the ace, as will be explained when we come to 
the play of the hand. 

Taking two aces and the third suit stopped, as a 
minimum standard for a no-trumper, it must be obvious 
that any better hand will be a stronger make. If there 
is another honor in either of the ace suits, for instance, 
or two sure tricks in the third suit, such as K Q J, 
or if there is a long suit which one honor in dummy's 



NO-TRUMP MAKES. 35 

hand will establish, or if one of the ace suits is long 
and likely to be easily established, the no-trump make 
is so much the better. 

A Suit is Stopped when you can make one trick in 
it, or can compel the adversary to quit it and lead 
something else. 

Two aces is also a better no-trumper if there are 
eight or nine red cards in the hand, or if the third suit, 
in which you hold two or three honors, is a red suit, or 
if both aces are red, because there is not much likeli- 
hood that you are spoiling a big honor score in red in 
your partner's hand. 

One of the greatest advantages of making it no 
trump on two aces and a trick in a third suit is, that 
your partner may have absolute confidence that if you 
pass it to him you have not done so with two aces in 
your hand, unless the rest of your cards are worthless. 
There is nothing so demoralizing as a partner who 
passes it when he should have made it himself, be- 
cause it is a continual source of temptation to the 
dummy to risk a no-trumper on one or two suits, 
on the chance that his partner has passed with 
two aces in his hand. It is not only right to make 
it because you have certain cards, but in order that 
your partner may feel sure when you do not make it 
that you do not hold such good cards. It is often of 
great advantage to the dummy to know that the dealer 
cannot have had a certain strength. 

Witli Only One Ace, a no-trumper should never be 
made, unless there is exceptional strength in all the 



36 FOSTER S BRIDGE MANUAL. 

Other suits and the probabihties of a good trick score 
are so great that they offset the possibiKties of the 
adversaries scoring thirty aces against you, besides 
taking at least three certain tricks with those three 
cards. When a no-trumper is risked with only one 
ace, all three of the other suits should be protected 
to such an extent that they can be stopped twice, and 
there should be a great game to play for in a black 
suit. If the long suit is red, it is always a better 
trump declaration than without. Take this example : — 

9 A. K Q J. 4. K J 10. 4jk K Q J 10 9 4. 

In the actual game this no-trumper lost two by cards ; 
five heart tricks, the A Q of clubs and the ace of 
spades. Make the long suit red, and it is better than 
taking chances on a no-trumper. Make the long suit 
clubs instead of spades and it is a close question be- 
tween a club and a no-trumper, which the score would 
have to decide. If the ace suit is the long suit, and 
it is solid, such as seven black cards with the four 
highest honors, with sure stoppers in the three other 
suits, or at least the king in two of them, it is often 
a fair risk to try it as a no-trumper on the one ace, 
because if you ever get in you are certain of eight 
tricks in your own hand, seven in your long suit and 
your entry card. 

Without an Ace. A player should have a phenome- 
nal hand in court cards to make it no trump without 
an ace, and the only circumstances under which such 
a make would be justifiable would be with both the 



NO-TRUMP MAKES. 3/ 

black suits long and both the red protected and the 
score such that it was impossible to win the game with 
a black trump. Even then, the danger of finding 
thirty or forty aces or even a hundred against you 
must not be overlooked, and* such hands are almost 
always better left to the partner, who may be strong 
enough in red suits to make a declaration that will 
win the game without risking a no-trumper. To the 
beginner, we should say, absolutely, never to make it 
no-trump without an ace in your hand. 

With One Missing Suit, a no-trumper may generally 
be risked, unless you have the cards in your own hand 
to go game with a declared trump. There is always 
the chance that the missing suit will be run down 
against you, perhaps winning the odd before you get 
into the lead, and you should never risk such a suit 
unless it is necessary. If your score is sufficiently 
advanced for you to win with a trump, why should you 
experiment with a no-trumper ? Even if you do get 
through, thanks to the dummy's assistance, it is still 
a bad make and you are learning bad habits, which 
will get you into trouble some day. 

With Two Missing Suits, never risk a no-trumper 
unless you have six or seven tricks in your own hand 
and are trusting your partner to stop one suit only. 
As an example of a good no-trumper even with two 
missing suits, take the following hand : Five cards to 
the A K Q in one suit and four to the A K in another, 
the longer suit being always a black suit, and the four- 
card suit either black or red, with nothing in the oth 






38 Foster's bridge manual. 

suits. It is obvious that unless your partner has an 
absolute Yarborough, and cannot win a trick in either 
of the other suits, that you must get in and make all 
the tricks in your own hand and any that dummy may 
have. If you pass it, your partner cannot have any 
good make unless he is very strong in red, and he is 
much more likely to make it red on an average hand 
and get beaten, or to call it a spade, if he is weak in 
red. 

Without such strength as this, or when you have 
to depend on your partner for two or three tricks, 
you should never make it no trump with two missing 
suits. It is a much better trump make if your long 
suit is red, and if both your suits are black, there is a 
fair chance that your partner, has a good honor score 
in red and it is better to pass the make than to risk 
a no-trumper. 

When you do take a chance on a no-trumper with 
two missing suits, having perhaps eight solid tricks in 
spades, it is better to do it when the other guarded 
suit is red, and especially if you have a sure trick in 
hearts, so as to provide against a go-over by your 
right-hand adversary. That some wild no-trumpers 
do go through cannot be denied, some even without 
an ace and with a missing suit besides, but such 
makes must lose in the long run and a person should 
not allow himself to get into the habit of tempting 
fortune with them. They are a great injustice to 
the partner, if they are nothing else, and the only 
justification for them is the score. 



HEART MAKES. 39 

Heart Makes. After looking over the possibilities 
of the hand as a no-trumper, the next thing to con- 
sider is the heart suit, because it comes next in value 
and it takes only one trick less to win the game in 
hearts than in no trump. 

Six or Seven Trumps, including three honors, or 
five trumps with four or five honors, should be the 
least that would justify the selection of a heart in 
preference to a no-trumper when there are three aces 
in the hand, one being the ace of hearts. Such 
strength in hearts, with three outside aces, is a no- 
trumper alvv^ays, unless there are four honors in 
hearts in one hand, with six or seven trumps. If 
there are two outside aces only, and weakness in the 
fourth suit, it is a better heart make than a no- 
trumper, especially in the last game of the rubber. 
To take an extreme example : — 

9AKQ94. 4.Q. 0AKQ8. ♦AQ2. 

While this will go through as a no-trumper nine 
times out of ten, probably, there is a chance that they 
will make all the clubs and get the odd, whereas it is 
a sure game hand in hearts. Why should you take a 
risk, even one time in ten, when you have a sure 
game hand } 

Five Trumps with Two Honors should be the mini- 
mum for a heart make when a no-trumper is out of 
the question, and there should be something in the 
other suits at least as high as the queen. Without 
any card as good as a queen in any other suit, it is 



40 FOSTERS BRIDGE MANUAL. 

not a safe heart make, even with five trumps, unless 
you have both ace and king. 

Five Hearts to one Honor, even if it is the ace, is 
not a safe make unless you have protection in two of 
the outside suits. It must never be forgotten that 
when you have no honors, your partner's probable 
share is only one-third of those outstanding, and he 
may not have that even. If you persist in making a 
trump on five small cards, the adversaries will cer- 
tainly run up a large honor score against you, even if 
they do not always win the odd trick. There is not 
much satisfaction in giving the adversaries 32 in 
honors for the sake of getting 8 in points yourself, 
unless those 8 are enough to win the game. 

Five Trumps and a Five-card Suit is usually a very 
good make because the adversaries cannot go far with 
the suits in which you are short, whereas if your plain 
suits are pretty equally divided they may make several 
tricks in them and even get in a ruff or two before 
you can get into the lead. But with five trumps and 
a five-card suit, if you find your partner with one 
honor in trumps and one in your suit, you will very 
likely make two or three by cards. 

With Six or More Hearts, even if none is higher 
than the ten, you should generally make it, especially 
if you have a missing suit or a singleton, which you 
can ruff out with your small trumps. As already 
pointed out, the shorter a suit in your hand, the 
greater probability that dummy will hold some good 
cards in it. These may give you discards of your 



/ 
HEART MAKES. 4 1 



Other short suit. But, as a general rule, when you 
have six hearts to one small honor and nothing in the 
plain suits, it is better to pass the make. You have 
only three probable tricks in your hand and a big 
honor score possibly against you. To pass with six 
hearts seems unheard of to some bridge players, but 
such conservatism will save many a rubber. 

With Four Hearts only, but three honors, such as 
A K Q, K Q J, or K J lo, you have a score of i6 in 
honors for a certainty, and with protection in two 
other suits, or one black suit solid, you should make it 
a heart. An established black suit is very useful to 
force with, so as to exhaust the adverse trumps when 
you cannot afford to draw them, or they are massed in 
one hand against you. These four-trump makes will 
fail occasionally, but you will seldom lose more than 
one or two by cards on them and you always have an 
honor score to offset that loss. 

With Four Honors in Hearts, even without another 
trump or without any strength in the side suits, you 
should make it, especially if the four honors are in 
sequence to the ace. Suppose that your partner can- 
not take more than one trick and you have nothing 
outside your trumps. You lose two by cards ; but 64 
in honors goes a long way to making a difference in 
the value of the rubber at the end. 

In the heart makes the honor score is an important 
factor, as it runs into large figures, and the beginner 
should never lose sight of the fact that there is a 
great difference between making a trump with five or 



42 FOSTERS BRIDGE MANUAL. 

six small cards and no honors, and making it with 
only four or five but with three honors. A trump 
suit without honors may not only lose the points for 
the honors, but the trick points as well, and a weak 
make risks the score in both columns. But if you 
have simple honors at least in your hand, you risk 
only one part of the score, the tricks, and you can 
well afford to lose 8 points when the game is not in 
danger, if by taking that chance you secure a cer- 
tainty of 1 6 or 32 points in your honor column. 

It has already been stated that some very good 
players pay no attention to this element of the honor 
score as an offset to a loss in points, and insist that 
as the tricks are the only things that win rubbers they 
are the only things to play for. But you are not sure 
of the tricks in any case, and why add to your uncer- 
tainty by taking chances on the honor score as well ? 
It will generally be found that the player who keeps 
his eye on the honor score will lose less when he does 
lose and will win more when he does win than the 
player who pays no attention to honors. 

Diamond Makes. Having decided that the hand 
should not be either a no-trumper or a heart, the next 
thing to consider is the diamond suit. Even with four 
honors in diamonds, the hand should be a no-trumper 
if it comes within that category. Four honors in 
diamonds are worth only 48, and if you have two aces 
there is an even chance that your partner has a third, 
which w411 be 30 in honors for you as against 48, but 
the odds are against his having the fifth honor in 



DIAMOND MAKES. 43 

diamonds, because in the aces he has two chances to 
get one or the other, but in the diamonds there is but 
one card. Each trick at no-trump is worth just twice 
as much as in diamonds, and it takes five by cards to 
win the game with a diamond make. If you have 
nothing in hearts and no aces, it is very probable that 
your partner has a better hand than you have and you 
are simply spoiling it by making it a diamond on a 
weak hand. At the beginning of the game, as it is 
so difficult to win eleven tricks out of the thirteen, you 
should never make it a diamond unless you have four 
honors, or five in suit to three honors, with protec- 
tion in another suit in either case ; or five in suit to 
two honors and protection in two other suits. 

With Five Trumps, diamonds should never be made 
without an honor, or with only one honor, unless you 
have strength enough in the other suits to be just a 
shade below what is necessary for a no-trumper. 
Some players have a fatal propensity for making it a 
diamond just because they have five of them, without 
stopping to consider their outside strength or the 
possibilities of their partner's having a better make. 
Unless your five diamonds are headed by both ace 
and king, there should be at least one certain trick 
outside to justify such a make. More hands go to 
pieces on bad diamond makes than on anything else, 
and the dummy should remember that because the 
make is passed, it is no evidence that the dealer does 
not hold five diamonds in his hand. 

Witli Four Trumps, it should never be made a 



44 FOSTERS BRIDGE MANUAL. 

diamond unless they are all honors and there is pro- 
tection in at least one outside suit. If this protection 
is in hearts, it is a better diamond make than when 
the heart suit is very weak, because of the difference 
in the probability of dummy's holding a great heart 
suit and being able to make it to advantage if it is 

passed. 

Making it Diamonds to the Score. The diamond 
make is particularly affected by the score, because any 
doubtful diamond is usually just on the verge of a 
passed hand. The following general rules should be 
carefully studied by the beginner : — 

Never make it diamonds on the first game of the 
rubber, with the score love-all, unless you have four 
honors, or five of the suit to three honors, or five of 
the suit to two honors and protection in two outside 
suits. The difference between three honors and two 
only is the difference between a certainty of 12 points 
at least in your honor column and the possibility of 
12 against you. 

Never make it diamonds on the rubber game, unless 
the score is such that you can win the game, even if 
you do not find more than one trick in your partner's 
hand, or unless you have six or seven trumps and four 
or five honors. 

On the second game of the rubber, diamonds is a 
fair make if you have won the first game and have 
a hand of average strength. But on the first and 
last games of the rubber it is always a doubtful make 
on account of the difficulty of making game on the 



CLUB MAKES. 45 

hand. With the score advanced so far in your favor 
that you have a fair chance to go out on the odd trick, 
or even two by cards, you may make it a diamond if 
you do not want more than two tricks from your part- 
ner, but never count on him for three tricks. 

Club Makes. Original makes in black suits depend 
entirely upon the score. There being three better 
makes than either of the black suits ; no trump, hearts, 
and diamonds, it is obviously a fair chance that if you 
have nothing better than black that your partner will, 
and that if it is to be made a black suit in the end, 
it is better to let him make it black after he has had 
an opportunity to do something better, than for you 
to make it without giving him a chance. For this 
reason it is stated as a general principle that the 
dealer should never make it a black suit, but there 
are exceptions to the rule, all of which depend on the 
score. 

Never make it a club unless you are far enough 
advanced in the score to win the game with only one 
trick in dummy's hand to help you, or unless you are 
afraid that your partner will take a chance on some 
suit in which you have nothing, and so lose an advan- 
tage in the score which you have already gained. 

With Four Honors in one Handy it is often better 
to make than to pass, especially if you are ahead in 
the score, with one game in, because the count for 
four honors in one hand in clubs, 32, is very much 
above the average trick value of any hand. 

When your Hand is all Black, there is always the 



46 Foster's bridge manual. 

V 

danger that your partner may make a red trump on 
an average hand, and if you have a game in, or are 
ahead in the score, you should not give him any chance 
to make such a mistake, which might seriously en- 
danger your chances of winning the rubber. 

// the Score is against you never make it a club 
unless you are pretty sure of the game, with one trick 
in dummy's hand to help you, 

// the Score is in your favor, especially if you have 
won the first game of the rubber and are playing the 
second, with a chance to win it, you should make it 
clubs very freely if you have the honor score in your 
favor ; always with four honors, usually with three 
honors and six trumps. 

Spade Makes. The score is the deciding point for 
the original spade make. If you need only two or four 
points to win the game or rubber, and have at least 
six tricks in your hand with spades for trumps, and 
nothing worth considering in any other declaration, it 
is better to make it spades and take no chances on 
your partner. If he turns out to have a good hand, 
,that will simply make the winning of the game and 
.rubber more of a certainty. Never tempt your partner 
to take a chance on a doubtful make when you have 
the game in your own hand. No matter what you lose 
by it occasionally, the safe game will win in the end. 

Never make it a spade, when you have nothing 
up on the score, unless you have at least nine of them 
to four or five honors and nothing in the red suits„ 
In hands like this, which are all spades, or in hands 



SPADE MAKES. ■ 4/ 

which are absolutely worthless in all suits, a spade is 
often a good original make, simply as a matter of 
safety, and especially if you want to protect yourself 
when you are advanced in the score. With the first 
game in and nothing scored on the second game, for 
instance, it would be judicious to make it a spade 
originally with the following cards : — 

9874 ^ 6 S 3 0532 ♦J1094 

The result of the make and the play that followed was 
published in the JVew York Situ, March 25, 1900. The 
dealer lost three by cards and simple honors, although 
dummy had three aces. Had he passed it, dummy 
would have made it no-trump and lost ninety-six points. 

With a great Spade hand, especially with five 
honors, it is doubtful if the make should be passed, 
unless you are behind in the score. The score for 
five honors in one hand, together with the probable 
trick points, will probably be above the average value 
of a deal. When you have a game in, you should run 
no risk of losing your advantage, especially if the ad- 
versaries are little or nothing up on the second game. 
If you pass the make, and your partner has not a 
phenomenal hand, you wall probably lose two or three 
by cards and will be lucky if they do not go over and 
win the game. By making it- spades, if your partner 
has anything at all, you may prevent the adversaries 
from getting more than one or two by cards, and if he 
has nothing they cannot possibly win the game, even 
if they go over and make a slam. 



48 Foster's brjdge manual. 

EXERCISES ON THE MAKES. 

The importance of good makes is so great that one 
should not venture to cut into a bridge table without 
some little practice in selecting the trump. It is of 
no use to read rules in a book, if you are not put to 
the test to see if you understand them sufficiently to 
use them when you find yourself with the actual cards 
in your hand. 

A very simple method of practicing the makes is to 
take a pack of cards, shuffle them thoroughly and give 
yourself thirteen, one at a time or all at once, it does 
not matter. Never mind about dealing out the other 
hands. Sort your cards and see if you can pick out 
the proper make, supposing the score to be love-all on 
the first game of the rubber. 

Any time that you are in doubt, say about a heart 
make, turn to the paragraph that covers the number 
of hearts and honors which you hold, and see if the 
conditions which are there stated are those which are 
fulfilled in your hand. 

After you have tried this with the first thirteen 
cards from the top of the pack, lay them aside and 
take the next thirteen, and so on, until you have 
made your selection from each of the four hands 
which the pack contains. Then shufifle them all to- 
gether and try it again. 

After you have satisfied yourself that you under- 
stand the rules for original makes with the score love- 
all, it will be time enough for you to practice the 



EXERCISES IN MAKES. 49 

variations demanded by the changed conditions of 
the score. The simplest way of. getting an imaginary 
score to play to is to rule a slip of paper in two 
columns, headed respectively We and They, and to 
put down trick scores only, taking no notice of honors. 
The best way to get a trick score is with a pair of 
dice, making one cast of both dice for We, and then 
one for They, doubling the result in each case, so as 
to get even figures. Suppose that the figures are 22 
for We and 8 for They. Still imagining this to be 
the first game of the rubber, go over some more hands 
and make your selections. Then try the same thing 
again, supposing it to be the second game and that 
you have won the first. Then suppose that you have 
lost the first game, and finally suppose that you have 
each won a game and that this is the rubber. You 
will find that casting dice to get a score to play to is 
much easier than putting down figures by guesswork, 
because it comes up in so many different ways that 
you would never think of. 

Be sure you follow the advice already given, making 
your trump selection first, and then looking at the 
score to see how that affects it. This is the natural 
process, which is to begin with the score love-all and 
then to learn how to adapt yourself to its changes as 
they arise. Half an hour's practice once a day, with 
the text-book beside you for reference, will soon make 
you sufficiently familiar with the general principles 
of the make to give you that confidence at the bridge 
table which is one of the first requisites for success. 



so Foster's bridge manual. 

PASSED MAKES. 

When the dealer finds nothing in his hand that 
will justify him in naming a trump at the score, he 
passes the make to his partner. It is a rule in good 
clubs, and should be the rule everywhere, that the 
dummy should not look at his cards until the dealer 
has either made a declaration or passed. 

The great difference between original and passed 
makes is, that the dummy must be more conservative 
in the red suits, because of the declared weakness in 
the dealer's hand. When the dealer names a trump 
he may trust dummy for average strength in any suit, 
but on a passed make the dummy must regard the 
dealer's hand as probably stronger in black than in red. 

Another difference between original and passed 
makes is, that in the original make you look at your 
cards first and then at the score ; whereas in a passed 
make you look at the score first and your hand after- 
ward. The condition of the score will often have as 
much to do with the dealer's passing the make as the 
condition of his hand. If you want two points only, 
and the dealer passes it to you, he evidently does not 
care what you make it ; but if the adversaries want 
two only, and you need twenty or thirty, your partner 
is evidently passing in the hope that you have a game 
hand, because at such a score he would not make it 
anything but no trumps or hearts, unless he had five 
honors in diamonds. 

On a passed make you must always remember that 



PASSED MAKES. $1 

any weakness in the hand will be immediately ex- 
posed, as the cards must be laid on the table. This 
is especially disadvantageous in a no-trumper, because 
you cannot hope that a risky make will go through on 
account of the failure of your adversaries to discover 
your weak spots, which is so often the salvation of a 
weak original make. 

No=Trumpers. Four aces is always a no-trumper, 
regardless of the rest of the hand or the score. 
Three aces should be, unless you have a sure game 
hand with a declared trump. Dummy should never 
chance a no-trumper, even with three aces, if he 
probably has enough to win the game with a trump ; 
and he should never declare a trump when it will 
take a no-trumper to win the game and he has three 
aces. Two aces and protection in a third suit is not 
a good no-trumper on a passed make unless the aces 
are both red, or one is red and the protection is in 
the other red suit. You should have several good 
cards in the third suit, or one of your ace suits 
solidly established, before you risk a no-trumper on 
two aces. One ace is a very bad no-trumper, unless 
the rest of the hand is exceptionally strong, because 
the score for aces is very likely against you, and al- 
most certainly divided. A missing suit and thirty 
aces against you, and your partner holding a passed 
hand, is not promising for the odd trick. 

One missing suit is not a bad no-trumper, provided 
the suit is black. If there is a great chance in the 
hand, and especially if a no-trumper is necessary at 



52 Foster's bridge manual. 

the score, it may sometimes be risked with two miss- 
ing suits, provided they are both black, but never 
with weakness in both red suits, because your partner 
is certainly weak in them also. Some players will 
always take a chance on a no-trumper when they are 
behind in the score if they have both the red suits 
surely stopped and anything big to play for in any 
suit. This is often a fair risk on the second game of 
the rubber when the adversaries have won the first, 
but it should never be taken when you are a game in 
and ahead on the second. 

Heart Makes. The rules for original heart makes 
apply equally to passed makes, except that there 
should be greater strength in the outside suits, es- 
pecially in diamonds, or more honors in hearts. Re- 
member that even if you have five or six small hearts 
it is not a good make unless you are well protected in 
other suits. Suppose you have six hearts to a single 
honor, not the ace, and nothing in the plain suits. It 
would be absurd to make this a heart, because there 
are only three tricks in your hand, and you are practi- 
cally asking your partner to take four tricks with a 
passed hand. Besides this, the honor score is almost 
certainly against you, as it is very improbable that 
your partner has passed the make with three honors 
in hearts, and much more likely that he has only one, 
or none at all. 

Diamond Makes. This is not such a bad make on 
a passed hand if you have the honors, because the 
dealer will often pass on a hand containing five small 



PASSED MAKES. 53 

diamonds. Dummy should never make it a diamond 
with less than five trumps to two honors, at least 
queen high, and some outside strength to support it, 
say two probable tricks. With only one probable 
trick outside he should not make it a diamond with- 
out both ace and king, or K O J, or six or seven 
trumps. When the outside strength is in hearts it is 
better than when it is in a black suit. 

Club Makes. When dummy cannot make it no 
trump or red, it usually comes down to a question of 
clubs or spades, with the benefit of the doubt always 
to be given to the spade suit. Honors are the only 
things that should decide in favor of the club, cards 
being equal. Five clubs to two honors, or four of 
them to three honors, is a better make than an equal 
number of spades with less honors, especially if one 
of the club honors is the ace. 

When it is a close choice between the two suits, 
clubs should be selected only w^hen they may \\m the 
game and spades will not, and w^hen the dummy is 
prepared to have the adversaries go over. Remember 
that a go-over in clubs makes each trick worth as 
much as in hearts, and if there is any danger that a 
go-over and the odd trick will give the adversaries 
the game, it is better not to risk the club. Do not for- 
get that the dealer may pass with a great hand of honors 
in spades, but not with a great honor score in clubs. 

Spade Makes are a sort of last resort, w^hen there is 
nothing else in the hand, or when you know that you 
are sure to lose several tricks in anything and it is 



54 Foster's bridge manual. 

cheaper to have them lost in spades. When you are 
ahead in the score, especially if you have won the first 
game and are playing the second, you should always 
choose a spade in preference to any doubtful or risky 
declaration which might make a bigger score. But 
when you are behind, and especially if it is likely that 
the adversaries will win the game on the next deal, you 
can take long chances. As an example of how much 
the score may influence the make on a passed hand, 
take the following cards : — 

o K J 3. ♦ A 10 8. o Q J 2. t J 7 4 2. 

With the score in your favor on the second game, you 
having won the first, this is a spade hand. With the 
score against you on the rubber game, say 26 to o, it 
is a no-trumper. 

Singletons are a great element of strength in dum- 
my's hand, especially if they are black, because the 
dealer is very likely to have the ace of a black suit, 
and the rest of it can be ruffed off. Two short suits 
in dummy's hand are very strong, because he can make 
his trumps by ruffing if it turns out to be disadvan- 
tageous to lead them. 

The chief things for dummy to remember are, that 
if he trusts the dealer for anything it should be for 
strength in black, or for small cards in diamonds, and 
that if he is ahead in the score he should be conserva- 
tive. It is also well to remember that if you are be- 
hind and want to take a shot, it is better to take it on 
a no-trumper than in a red suit. 



GOING OVER. 



There are two reasons for going over : the cards in 
the hand and the condition of the score. In America, 
there is an additional reason for a go-over by the lead- 
er's partner, which is, to get a certain suit led. 

It is better for the leader to go over original makes 
than passed makes, because the strong hand is on his 
right and he will be able to see what he has to beat 
in dummy's hand. It is better for the pone to go over 
passed makes, because his partner will be able to come 
through the strength in dummy's hand after the cards 
are exposed. 

The Score is the most important thing in going over, 
especially in no-trumpers and spades. If the adver- 
saries will go out with the odd trick at no trump, and 
the eldest hand has six sure tricks in his hand, but no 
more possible, he should go over, because if his part- 
ner cannot win a trick the game is gone, but if he can, 
they not only save the game but advance their score 
very considerably, even if the twenty-four points is not 
enough to put them out. 

A player should always go over when he has any 
chance for the odd trick and the go-over will not 
make any difference to the adversaries. For instance : 
"They" are 24 to your 6, and make it a diamond. 



56 Foster's bridge manual. 

The odd trick wins the game for them, whether it is 
worth 6 or 12; but if you win the odd you not only 
save it, but get 12 points to your credit instead of 6 
only; and if you can get two by cards you win the 
game on the hand. 

On the contrary, if any increase in the value of 
the tricks is likely to be of more advantage to them 
than to you, you should never go over, except on a 
certainty. Suppose 3^ou are 26 to their 16 and they 
make it a spade. It would be folly to go over, unless 
you were certain of the odd trick, because they would 
immediately go back, whether they had anything or 
not, as the odd settles the game, but if they can get 
two by cards you will have given them the game 
when you had all the best of the position, it being 
your next deal with only four to go. 

No=trumpers. There is quite a difference in the 
hand on which a no-trumper may be gone over by the 
leader, and one on which the pone might go over, 
because the one knows just what to lead, while the 
other has to depend on his partner's ability as a 
guesser, unless the American convention of always 
leading a heart is adopted, so as to keep the eldest 
hand from feeling for his partner's suit. 

When the Eldest Hand goes over, he does so on 
his own hand and with the knowledge that he will 
have the lead and can run down any suit he may 
hold. He should not go over unless he has six 
certain tricks, with the possibility of seven or eight, 
but not nine, because if it is a question of one card 



GOING OVER NO-TRUMPERS. 57 

whether he makes six or nine, the nine will win the 
game without risking the expense of a go-over. 
With a solid suit in hand, good for seven sure tricks, 
go over, of course. With a suit of seven cards 
headed by three honors and a reentry ace, or king 
and queen, in another suit, he may go over ; but it is 
risky unless the long suit can be cleared in one 
round. Even then he may not get in again until the 
odd is lost. Five sure tricks, if in different suits, is 
a good go-over hand, especially if these are tenace 
suits and the make is original. One very long but 
unestablished suit and no reentry is a very poor go- 
over hand. 

When the Pone goes over a no-trumper, it is con- 
ventional in America that the eldest hand shall lead 
him a heart, and the pone knows, therefore, that a 
heart will be the opening lead, if his partner has one. 
This is done in order to prevent the gamble that the 
eldest hand will hit the suit the pone wants led. 
In England, and in some parts of America, it is the 
custom for the eldest hand to lead his weakest suit 
when the pone goes over a no-trumper ; but, unfor- 
tunately, he does not always hold a suit which is 
decidedly weaker than any other, and may have to 
guess between two suits, both of which may be 
wTong. Experience has shown that it is better to 
have an established conventional lead for the eldest 
hand under such circumstances, which is quite as 
fair for one side as the other, for while it allows the 
pone to dictate what the opening lead shall be, it is 



58 Foster's bridge manual. 

not certain that the leader has a heart, and it also 
gives the dealer a chance to go back if he sees 
that he can still make the odd, in spite of a heart 
lead. 

This convention prevents the pone from going over 
when he does not want a heart led, or when such a 
lead would be disadvantageous to him, but this is 
compensated for by giving him a slight advantage 
when hearts is his suit, and he wants it started before 
he loses his reentries. 

No matter how strong the pone may be in one or 
two other suits, he should never risk a go-over unless 
he has a probable trick in hearts, as his partner will 
certainly lead his best heart to him, and it may clear 
up the whole suit in the dealer's hand. It must also 
be remembered that the more hearts the pone holds 
the greater the probability that the eldest hand has 
none to lead. 

The eldest hand has the advantage in going over 
original no-trump makes, because the strength is on 
his right. The pone has the same advantage in going 
over passed makes if he is well protected in all suits 
and has no objection to an original lead of a heart. 

Either the eldest hand or the pone may go over 
more freely when they see that the no-trumper is a 
passed make to the score, and is evidently a gamble 
to win or lose the game on the hand. It is very 
dangerous to go over a no-trumper when the adver- 
saries have the best of the score, unless you have a 
certainty of the odd. 



GOING OVER IN TRUMPS. 59 

Going Over Trump Declarations. When a red 
trump is declared, a player should have at least six 
sure tricks in his hand and trust his partner for one 
only, when he goes over. In counting the possible 
tricks in trumps, the position of the declaring hand 
must not be overlooked. Five trumps to the A Q lo 
in the eldest hand, against an original make, are worth 
twice as much as the same trumps in the hand of the 
pone, because they must be led up to and not 
through. An original maker may usually be credited 
with five trumps at least, and in a passed make of a 
red suit, dummy must be considered to have five or 
six trumps, perhaps more. The score must always 
be closely watched in going over red suits, and the 
possibility of a redouble must be considered. 

Going Over Spade Maizes, Many persons are too 
ready to go over a spade, assuming that both the 
adversaries' hands are weak. They will go over a 
spade with cards on which they would never go over 
a heart or a diamond, if the suits were transposed. 
This assumption of weakness is only partly true, as 
it must be restricted to the red suits, and due con- 
sideration should be given to the score before going 
over a spade make on a hand which is very strong in 
red, because it will often happen that dummy has a 
number of trumps and the dealer has a long club suit, 
and between them they will make two or three by 
cards against very strong red hands. As a rule, a 
player should never go over a spade unless he is quite 
ready to have the adversaries go back, and he should 



6o Foster's bridge manual. 

consider the probable result in the score if he is 
redoubled and loses the odd. 

If the original make is a spade, and the score is 
decidedly in favor of the dealer, it is almost a cer- 
tainty that he has the game in his hand, and it would 
only be adding to the value of that game to go over. 
The same is even more true of an original club make, 
and it is very unsafe to go over either unless you 
have almost a certainty of the odd trick. 

The general principle of going over is, that if you 
are reasonably certain of the odd trick, you should go 
over in order to make it more valuable ; but if you 
are not sure of the odd you should not go over unless 
it will give you a decided advantage in the score if 
you win, and will not hurt you if you are redoubled 
and lose the odd. When you go over, never forget 
the possibility of their going back. 

QOINO BACK. 

When a declaration has been gone over by the 
adversaries, the maker of the trump has the first say 
about going back. As a rule, most players will be con- 
tent to let it stop at one go-over when they find the 
strength massed against them, unless they have ex- 
traordinary cards. If the eldest hand goes over a no- 
trumper, the dealer can usually tell by a glance at 
his cards what suit will be opened, and can judge his 
chances of stopping it, or how many tricks will be made 
in it. When the declaration has been made on average 



GOING BACK. 6 1 

cards the maker should rest immediately, and that will 
give the dummy a chance to take up the challenge if 
he has a great suit, because he will know that the deal- 
er must have made it with that suit missing. 

When the pone goes over a no-trumper, if the deal- 
er rests it is evident that he cannot stop the heart suit, 
but if the dummy has a sure trick in hearts he may go 
back, knowing that the hearts cannot be run down be- 
fore the dealer's side gets into the lead. If the dummy 
has a good strong suit, of which his partner ha§ prob- 
ably the ace, and has the hearts stopped, even on the 
fourth or fifth round, he should certainly go back. 
Four hearts to the J lo will stop the suit even if the 
pone has seven of them to the A K Q 9. 

The principles that have already been explained in 
connection with going over, so as to get a possible ad- 
vantage in the score if you can win the odd, apply with 
equal force to going back. Never forget that if the 
odd wins the game or rubber for them, it cannot hurt 
you to increase its value if you have any chance to win 
it, and its increased value will win the game for you. 
Many a rubber has been lost by careless going over, 
giving the adversaries a chance to go back, and so make 
the trick just valuable enough to win them the game. 
Look long and carefully at the score before you go 
back. 

Some players seem to take a go-over as a personal 
affront and go back as a matter of pride, without stop- 
ping to think about their chances or the consequences 
of their rashness. This is very unjust to the partner, 



62 Foster's bridge 'manual. 

who has not a word to say in self-defence, even when 
he knows you are making a fool of yourself and throw- 
ing away his money into the bargain. It is useless 
to go back more than enough to make the value of the 
odd trick sufficient to win the game, and such non- 
sense as running a spade make up to 1 28, or a diamond 
up to 192, is simply gambling, and is the one thing 
which has done more than anything else to bring the 
game into disrepute with the better class of card 
players. 



"\ 



THE PLAY. 



AGAINST TRUMP DECLARATIONS. 

The principles that govern the play, and the prob- 
abilities of success in getting the most out of certain 
combinations of cards, are very different in playing 
with a trump suit and without, and it will greatly sim- 
plify matters if the beginner will regard the two things 
as almost separate and distinct forms of the game. 
The rules which apply to playing against a trump make 
are often exceptions when there is no trump, the great 
difference being, that against a declared trump there 
is no prospect of making the small cards of a long suit, 
and the best one can hope for is not to carry home any 
aces. The adversaries, who have named the trump to 
suit their own hands, are the ones that will bring in 
the small cards in plain suits, if any are to be brought 
in. They have the strong hands, at least presump- 
tively, and you have the weak ones, so they are on the 
attack and you are on the defensive, and the best you 
can do is to make what tricks you can before they get 
rid of all their losing cards. 

Original Leads. The first lead is always made in 
the dark, dummy's cards not being yet exposed, and it 
should be governed by two general principles : Never 

63 



64 Foster's bridge manual. 

lead trumps, unless you hold tenaces or guarded kings 
in all the plain suits, and always lead a card which will 
keep the lead until you get a look at dummy's hand, 
if you can. 

Disregarding the original trump lead, which is so 
exceptional that it need not be discussed here, the 
student should apply himself to learning the original 
or opening leads against a trump declaration. The 
high card leads from strength are the ace, king, queen, 
and ten, the jack being always the top of nothing. 

KING LEADS. 

In any suit in which you hold the king and it is 
accompanied by the next card in value, either above or 
below, that is, K A, K Q, or A K Q, you should al- 
ways lead the king, regardless of the number of cards 
in the suit or of what you hold in other suits. With 
two suits, both of which contain a king lead, always 
select the suit with the ace in it, because that will re- 
tain the lead, if it is not trumped on the first round. 

This rule covers all the combinations of high cards 
which are shown on the opposite page, from all of which 
the king should be led, no matter how many cards 
there are in the suit. The face value of the small cards 
which are shown is indifferent. Anything below a ten 
is simply a small card. 

Failing any such strong combinations as these, you 
should look for suits which have two or more high 
cards, such as the following : — 



THE KING LEADS. 



65 



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66 



FOSTER S BRIDGE MANUAL. 



THE ACE LEADS. 

Any suit in which you hold the ace, but not the king, 
should be avoided if possible, because an ace is a very 
valuable card to have after you have seen dummy's 
hand, and may be very useful in keeping either the 
dealer or the dummy out of the lead at a critical point, 
and will often stop a dangerous suit after the trumps 
are gone. 

But if you do lead a suit which is headed by the ace, 
always lead the ace, no matter what else the suit con- 
tains, so that it does not contain the king. This is 
one of the most important rules at bridge and you will 
save no end of aces if you follow it faithfully. 

The ace should be led from any of the combinations 
of high cards shown on the opposite page, regard- 
less of the number or value of the small cards in 
the suit. 



THE TEN LEAD. 



The ten is led from only one combination of 
cards : — 







Some players lead the jack from this combination, but 
it is not a good lead, as the jack is a better supporting 
card than the ten to lead from weak suits. 



THE ACE LEADS. 



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68 



FOSTER S BRIDGE MANUAL. 



QUEEN LEADS. 







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♦ ^ 



♦ ^ 




These may be easily remembered by observing that 
there is no higher card in the hand than the queen, and 
that it is always accompanied by the jack and ten or 
jack and nine. The queen may also be led from suits 
of three cards only, if it is accompanied by the jack, 
even without the ten or nine. 



SMALL CARD LEADS. 

If you hold no combination of high cards from which 
you would lead a high card under any of the foregoing 
rules, you must lead a small card, and if you have four 
or more in the suit, you should always lead the fourth- 
best, counting from the top. From any of the combi- 
nations shown on the opposite page, the fourth-best 
card should be led, because if they are examined it will 
be found that no one of them contains a combination 
from which it would be right to lead a king, queen, 
jack, or ten. In each of the combinations shown the 
four is the fourth-best card. If there were only four 
cards in the suit the lowest would of course be the 
fourth-best and the proper lead. 



FOURTH-BEST LEADS. 



69 















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70 



FOSTER S BRIDGE MANUAL, 



THE JACK LEADS. 

The jack is never led except as a supporting card 
from the top of a short suit or from a long suit headed 
by the J lo 9 or the J 10 : — 



^Mi^ 












^ 
^ 


^ 

^ 




^ 

^ 








There is no chance that the jack will win a trick, 
but it is sometimes useful in giving the third hand a 
finesse against the dummy. 



SHORT=SUIT LEADS. 

If the suit selected for the opening contains less than 
four cards and is headed by either the king or queen, 
but not both, it is a very bad suit to open and it would 
be much better to lead some short suit headed by noth- 
ing higher than a jack. If you must open three-card 
suits headed by the ace, lead the ace always, but if you 
open with three cards to a single honor, such as the 
king or queen, lead the small card. If the short suit 
contains nothing so high as a queen, lead the top of it. 



SHORT-SUIT LEADS. 



n 



From all such suits as the following, for instance, the 
highest card of the three should be led : 




9^9 

^ "V 

^^^ 

9^9 




^ 

9 





4. 4. 




4. 4. 

4. 4. 


4. 4, 




4. 4. 
















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4. 4. 




4. 4. 




4- 


4. 4. 




4. 4. 




4- 



Never lead a ten from the top of a weak suit, be- 
cause that will confuse it with the K J 10 lead. If 
you must open a three-card suit, ten high, lead the 
intermediate card, such as the nine or seven from the 



following : 







9 9 
9 9 




9 
9 


9 
9 




4. 4. 




4-.4* 

I* 
4. 4. 

4. 4. 




4. 4. 

4. 4. 
4. f 



Your partner will know from the cards he holds 
and from those he sees in dummy's hand that the 
interior card cannot be a fourth-best, and that the 
suit must be very weak in your hand. 

All the foregoing leads are used only when playing 
against a declared trump suit, it being assumed that 
the make is from strength and that no one goes 
over. 



72 FOSTER S BRIDGE MANUAL. 

What should be led against no-trumpers, or when the 
make is gone over, will be taken up further on. 



EXERCISES IN THE LEADS. 

For practice in learning the leads, the student should 
take a pack of cards and give himself hands of thirteen 
at a time, sorting them and picking out the proper suit 
and card to lead against either a heart or diamond 
declaration by the player on his right. It is useless to 
read over these rules under the impression that you 
will remember them when you sit down to the table 
for actual play, because you will not. You must have 
the practice with the cards themselves in hand, 
so that the eye may become so accustomed to the 
various combinations that it will guide the fingers 
to the correct card to lead the moment the hand is 
sorted. 

LEADING TO PASSED HANDS. 

When playing against a passed make, if there is any 
choice in your opening, and you have no suit headed 
by both ace and king, or by three honors in sequence 
to the king, it is better to avoid leading black suits 
up to the dealer, as he is probably strong in them. 
You should be especially careful not to lead a black 
suit headed by the ace, or the major tenace, ace and 
queen, as such cards may be ^ery useful in stopping 
the dealer's suit after dummy has exhausted the 



SPECIAL OPENING LEADS. 73 

trumps. As a rule, when you have any choice in the 
matter, it is best to lead a red suit up to a passed 
make, and to hold on to your black aces until you 
have seen dummy's cards. 



LEADING AFTER A GO=OVER. 

If you have gone over the trump declaration your- 
self, you should certainly know what to do with your 
cards When your partner has gone over a trump 
declaration, it is not wise to lead him the trump im- 
mediately. If you have an ace in your hand, or an 
ace-king suit, play it first, and take a look at dummy's 
cards. This is especially true if your partner has 
gone over a passed make, because when you have 
seen what dummy made it on, you will be better able 
to judge of the advisability of leading through it. If 
your partner has gone over an original make, it is 
very bad play to lead the trump, because you are 
going through him up to the hand which has declared 
its strength against him in the trump suit. 

When your partner goes over a passed make in 
spades, you should lead him the best trump you 
have, if you are strong in plain suits, but if you 
have fair trump strength yourself, it is probable that 
he has gone over on the plain suits, and it may be 
better to take a look at dummy before leading 
trumps. If you have no ace suit, you may often 
lead a short suit to advantage, hoping it will strike 
your partner's hand, and either secure you discards 



74 FOSTER S BRIDGE MANUAL. 

or enable you to get in some of your small 
trumps. 

SECOND ROUND OF THE SUIT. 

If the first card led wins the trick you should 
follow with the best card of the suit, if you hold it. 
If you have several cards, equally the best, such as 
A Q after leading the K, you should play the card 
which will tell your partner the exact combination 
from which you first led. For instance : You have 
led the king, and you may have the ace or it may 
be held up against you by the dealer. If your 
partner has not the ace he will credit you with it. 
If you have not the ace you must credit him with 
it. Your king winning, in order to show which 
combination you have led from, you always follow 
the king with a different card for a different combi- 
nation. The rule in leading from three or more 
honors is to follow with the lowest that will win 
the trick. In the combinations shown on the opposite 
page, the king is the card first led in every case, and 
it is indicated by placing one dot over it. The card 
with two dots over it is the next one to be led or 
played if the king wins. 

In the first combination, by following the king w^ith 
the ten, you tell your partner that the ten is as good 
as the ace. By following the king with the jack, you 
say the jack is as good as the ace, but you deny the 
ten. By following with the queen you deny the jack, 
and by following with the ^ce you deny the queen. 



THE KING LEADS. 



75 



Second Round. 

































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One dot indicates the first lead ; two dots, the second lead, 



if the king wins the first trick. 



7^ 



FOSTER S BRIDGE MANUAL. 



Be careful never to follow the king with a small card 
when you hold K Q J, because the dealer will fre- 
quently hold up the ace on the first round, especially 
if he has A lo. 

On the second round of a suit from which you have 
led the ace, always follow with the fourth-best if you 
continue the suit, unless you hold both Q and J, in 
which case you follow with the queen if the suit is 
short; the jack if it is longer than four cards; and the 
ten if you have four honors : — 






•J. 
4. 4. 













On the second round of a suit from which you have 
led the queen, always follow with the ten, to show 
that it is a suit of four cards or more. If you follow 
the queen with the jack it should show a short suit, 
such as Q J X only. If you hold Q ] 109, you can 
follow the queen with the nine. 



SECONDARY LEADS. 



77 






o 




• • 









• 




• 


•?• 




*l 






A 

4 




•«• 



On the second round of a suit from which you have 
led the ten, follow with a small card if the ten forces 
the ace from the adversary, because your partner must 
have the queen if it is not in dummy's hand. If the 
ten forces the queen only, the adversaries must have 
the ace, so you follow with the king to clear your suit, 
if you have no better suit to lead. 

Having led the top of a short suit, if you get in 
again and wish to continue it, always play it down, 
following with the second best if you had three origi- 
nally, and always keeping the smallest card to the last. 
For instance : if you have led from 982, follow the 
nine with the eight, and your partner will miss the 
deuce and kno\y you have another of the suit ; but if 
you follow the nine with the deuce, it should be a cer- 
tainty that you have no more. Whether you lead, fol- 
low suit or discard, follow the same rule, always keep- 
ing the smallest of three until the last. If you have 
led an interior card, such as the eight from 1083, 



78 Foster's bridge manual. 

play the ten next time, keeping the three, because if 
you play the three next it should mean that you had 
only two cards in the first place. 

In any combination of cards in which you do not 
hold either the best or the second and third-best for 
the second round, you should lead your fourth=best 
Be careful to watch the cards that fall on the first 
round, so that you may know when you hold the sec- 
ond and third-best, as it is very important to play one 
of them. 

It may be objected that the exact information which 
is given by this system of leading will be of more ad- 
vantage to the strong hands, who have made the trump, 
than to the partner. But the dealer can see twenty- 
six cards, and knows exactly what is against him, so 
that you add little or nothing to the information he al- 
ready possesses, whereas the information to your part- 
ner may be of the utmost importance, as you will very 
soon discover when you come to the actual play. The 
dealer will do all in his power to deceive you both, and 
your only protection against his false cards is to be ab- 
solutely candid with each other. 

THIRD HAND PLAY. 

The pone should be thoroughly familiar with the 
leads, so as to be able to read his partner's hand. In 
order to get the necessary practice he should ask him- 
self, every time a hand is opened, what his partner has 
led from, and he should give special attention to dis- 



THIRD HAND PLAY. 79 

tinguishing weak leads from strong. If third hand 
holds A K 9, for mstance, and an 8 is led, it must be 
the top of nothing, because if it were a fourth-best the 
leader must hold Q ] lo, from which he would lead 
the queen, so at least two of those cards must be in 
the dealer's hand. 

The Eleven Rule. Whenever the eldest hand leads 
a card smaller than a ten, if it is a fourth-best, and not 
the top of nothing, you can always tell how many cards 
of the suit, higher than the one led, are out against 
him, by deducting the spots on the card led from eleven. 
Suppose he leads a seven, there are four out against 
him higher than the seven. If you have any of them, 
say two, such as ace and ten, the adversaries have the 
other two. If the dummy has one, the dealer has the 
other ; if dummy has neither, the dealer has both. A 
little practice at this will enable you to place cards 
with wonderful accuracy if your partner can be de- 
pended upon to lead correctly. Suppose you hold 
A lo 8 and your partner leads a 7, dummy having 
nothing higher. The dealer must have the queen. 
See if you can figure that out and why it must be so. 
If you cannot see it at first, lay out the cards. 

High Cards Led. In following suit to high cards 
led, or when no attempt is made to win the trick, the 
third hand should always play the smallest card he has 
unless he holds two only, in which case he should play 
the higher card, if it is of no value, so that when he 
drops the lower card his partner may know he has no 
more of the suit. The same system is followed when 



8o Foster's bridge manual. 

you hold three cards and the third is one that will win 
the second or third round of the suit. For instance : 
You hold Q 6 2 and your partner leads a king. You 
play the 6, and when he goes on with the ace you drop 
the deuce. This shows him that you are either out of 
the suit and can ruff it, or have the queen and can take 
care of it. 

This is called the Down=and=out echo, and was the 
system used in whist before the advent of the call for 
trumps. It is frequently of great use in exposing the 
false cards played by the dealer, who will, of course, 
do everything in his power to confuse his adversaries 
as to the location of the cards in their strong suit. It 
is not advisable to play this echo with two cards only 
when one of them is as good as the jack, unless you 
have the card next in value to it, above or below. The 
play can easily be distinguished from the echo with 
Q J X, because with that combination you would play 
the jack first, so when the jack falls the second round, 
your partner will know you have no more, just as well 
as if you had played down and out. 

Some persons play the down-and-out echo on the 
adversaries' suits, to show that they can win the third 
round, either by trumping or with the best card. 
This is sometimes useful in enabling a player to keep 
up the command of a suit and let his partner trump. 
The danger is, that if you begin such an echo the dealer 
may draw all your trumps before you complete it, and 
your partner will be trusting you for a trick which you 
cannot win, if your echo meant to ruff the suit out. 



THIRD HAND PLAY. 8 1 

The Trump Signal is never used in bridge, because 
if a player is strong enough to signal, he should have 
been strong enough to go over. An experienced bridge 
player can always tell when it would be advisable to 
lead a trump, the most obvious cases being; when the 
dealer does not lead them, because he wants to make 
his own and dummy's separately, and w^hen it looks as 
if something might be gained by leading through the 
strong trump hand. 

Low Cards Led. When your partner leads a small 
card you should do your best to win the trick. Never 
finesse against your partner. To finesse is to play a 
lower card than the best you hold, in the hope that it 
will win the trick and leave you with the best, such as 
finessing the queen when you hold A Q and others. 
If the card finessed against is in dummy's hand, it is 
not a finesse, but a sure trick ; but if that card is not 
in dummy's hand, there is not the slightest use in 
finessing, because if your partner has the king it does 
not matter which card you play, but if the dealer has 
the king you are giving him a trick, throwing away 
your queen at the same time, and allowing him to 
get into the lead when you can, keep him out of it. 
After you have made one or two of these finesses 
against your partner, and find that you never make 
your ace, you will learn better. With K J and others, 
follow the same principle, and never finesse the jack 
unless the queen is in dummy's hand. 

If a small card is led, and dummy puts up the ace 
or king, you holding queen and others, you should 



82 Foster's bridge manual. 

still play the down-and-out echo to show that you can 
take care of the third round. 



RETURNING PARTNER'S SUITS. 

If you get into the lead and return your partner's 
suit, lead back the higher of two only, no matter what 
they are, and the lowest of three, unless you have the 
best, or both second and third best, or some card 
which is better than any in dummy's hand. By pay- 
ing close attention to the fall of the cards on the first 
trick you can very often give your partner a good 
finesse over the dealer. Suppose he has led the king 
and forced the ace. You get in and hold the ten, the 
jack not being in dummy's hand. If you lead the ten 
to your partner it will win the trick, or you will catch 
the dealer's jack. Whether or not you should return 
your partner's suit at all, or should lead your own, or 
lead up to the weak suits in dummy's hand, must be 
learned from experience. No text book can teach you 
such things as that. 

DUMMY'S CARDS. 

The play of the adversaries against a trump declar- 
ation must be greatly influenced by the strength or 
weakness of the dummy's hand. When the original 
leader holds the first trick he should study dummy's 
cards very carefully, in order to see what is probably 
going to happen. If he is thoroughly familiar with 



dummy's cards. 83 

the principles governing the make, he will often be 
able to form a very good judgment of what the dealer 
held when he made the trump. Nothing but long 
experience will tell a person whether to run for it or 
play a waiting game, and it is impossible for a text 
book to give more than a few suggestions. 

If the dealer has made the trump and the dummy 
has a strong established suit, he will probably make 
every card of it if the dealer can get into the lead and 
exhaust the trumps. On this strong suit of dummy's, 
the dealer will then get rid of all his losing cards in 
your suits, and you will probably have to carry home 
an ace or king which you might have made. In order 
to prevent this, the adversaries should keep the lead 
as long as possible, which is equivalent to saying that 
they should make all the tricks they can before the 
dealer gets any discards. It is quite natural that the 
dealer should make every effort to throw you off, and 
he will often drop a jack or queen on a trick, fourth 
hand, just to make you think he has no more, hoping 
you will shift. Unless you are sure you have some- 
thing better, don't mind such bluffs as this, but go 
right along with your winning cards. If he ruffs, 
you have forced the strong hand. 

Killing Reentries. If there is no established 
suit in dummy's hand there may be a long suit, which 
he can get established in one or two rounds. When 
such is the case, it should be the aim of the adver- 
saries to get the dummy's reentry cards out of his 
hand before this establishment can be accomplished. 



84 Foster's bridge manual. 

Suppose the dealer makes it a heart, and dummy 
holds two small trumps, seven clubs to the queen 
jack, three spades to the ten, and the ace of diamonds. 
That ace should be taken out of his hand at the very 
first opportunity, because then the dealer must hold 
three clubs in his own hand in order to make the 
dummy's suit, unless he can drop the king and ace 
together on the first lead. When dummy has no 
reentry cards, it is often good policy for the adver- 
saries to lead dummy's suit before the trumps come 
out, so as to take out of the dealer's hand the only 
cards with which he can put dummy in. When you 
hold the ace and another of dummy's suit, leading two 
rounds immediately will often kill the whole suit. 
This is usually better than holding up the ace when 
the suit is led, because the dealer may ruff it and you 
will lose it. 

Picking up Singletons in dummy's hand is very 
important when dummy is short in another suit, be- 
cause he may get a discard of. that one card and then 
ruff the suit out. For this reason, if either adver- 
sary has the ace of such a suit, it is customary to 
pick up the singleton at once. 

Playing ttirougli Dummy, When dummy has no 
long or strong suit which his partner will probably 
try to bring in, it should be the object of the eldest 
hand to weaken dummy by playing through him. 
There is not tmie enough so to manage the cards as 
to bring in a whole suit against the dummy, as there 
is at no trump, and the most that one can hope for is 



PLAYING THROUGH DUMMY. 85 

to pick up a clear trick by taking immediate advan- 
tage of a position. There are certain combinations 
of cards which it is useless to play through, because 
they are too strong, and to lead through them would 
either establish the suit against you at once, or would 
let dummy into the lead just long enough to give his 
partner some valuable discards. It is useless to lead 
through an A K Q suit, for instance, or K O J, or K 
Q 10 9. When you do lead through such strength, 
it should be as an invitation to your partner to force 
you at the first opportunity. 

Tenace and Fourchette It is very bad play to 
lead a card over which dummy holds fourchette. A 
perfect fourchette is a combination of the cards im- 
mediately above and below the- one led, such as K J 
over the O, or O lo over the J. An imperfect 
fourchette is the combination of the card above the 
one led and the one next but one below, such as K 
10 over a O led, or O Q over a T led. The A O 
fourchette is called the major tenace, and the K J is 
called the minor tenace. A Q lo is a double major 
tenace. If you lead high cards through such com- 
binations and your partner happens to have the higher 
card with which to win the trick, you have simply 
sacrificed both your honors to get one trick, whereas 
if you had kept still and let dummy lead the suit, 
you must make both of them. 

It is not so bad to go through an imperfect four- 
chette when you have both the intermediate cards, as 
when you lead the O from Q J through dummy's 



86 



FOSTER S BRIDGE MANUAL. 



K lo, because if partner has the ace you make 
two tricks in the suit, whether dummy covers the 
queen or not. You must be very careful never to 
lead false cards through dummy when your object is 
to give your partner the benefit of the position, or he 
may misunderstand your play and give up his advan- 
tage. If the king is in dummy's hand and you 
have Q J, or Q J lo, you must lead the queen, be- 
cause if you lead the jack or ten, your partner will 
read the queen with the dealer, and will put on his 
ace, making dummy's king good. Do not forget 
that your partner will not finesse against you but 
will probably try to force you. 

' When you have nothing in the suit, it is often 
good play to lead through fourchettes, especially ten- 
aces, because your partner may have a trick in the 
suit, whereas if the suit is led to you, you are helpless. 
If such leads do nothing else, they warn your partner 
not to trust you for anything in the suit. The follow- 
ing are good combinations to lead through if you 
have nothing in the suit yourself. 








fM 




Bl 




LEADING THROUGH DUMMY. 8/ 

It is useless to lead through such suits if you have 
the intermediate cards in your own hand, unless you 
do so with the deliberate intention of deceiving the 
dealer so as to coax him to go up with the best card, 
under the impression that your partner will win the 
trick if he does not. You may sometimes make a 
king good by leading a small card through the major 
tenace in this manner. 

There are a number of combinations of high cards 
which should be led in a certain way according to the 
cards of the suit in dummy's hand, but these are not 
of much importance in trump declarations, and will 
be more fully discussed when we come to the play 
against dum.my's cards in no-trumpers. The great 
thing is to go through dummy's strong suits and ten- 
aces. 

Leading up to Dummy. Exactly the reverse is 
true in leading to dummy, because you should always 
lead up to his weak suits, and never to his fourchettes 
and tenaces. If you are the pone, and get into the 
lead on the first or second trick, you should be able 
to form some judgment of the situation, and should 
be able to mark a good many cards which the 
dealer does or does not hold. Some very pretty 
perception problems come up in this way, and the 
player should always stop long enough to ask him- 
self what he knows. Take the following as an illus- 
tration : You are the pone and the dealer makes it a 
heart. You hold the A J x ; three small clubs ; the 
A X X in diamonds, and the K Q x x in spades. Your 



88 Foster's bridge manual. 

partner leads the club king, and dummy lays down 
five to the queen, the king and one small trump, 
K X X in diamonds and A x x in spades. Your partner 
shifts to the 8 of diamonds, and dummy plays small, 
your ace winning and the dealer following suit. 
Think this over, especially the make, the score being 
love-all. 

While you should always lead up to weakness in 
dummy's hand, this weakness does not include the 
trump suit unless your partner has gone over, or unless 
it is evident that the dealer is avoiding a trump lead, so 
as to let the dummy ruff off some of your good cards. 
Weak suits are those in which dummy holds several 
small cards, as the ace, king, or queen, with no other 
honor. Singletons in dummy's hand are not weak 
suits, as he can ruff them off if his partner can win 
the first round. It is not so dangerous to lead up to 
aces and kings as some players imagine, but the leads 
to tenaces should be avoided at all costs, as the 
major tenace must kill anything your partner has, 
and the minor tenace will be promoted if your part- 
ner's ace is forced out. * 

You should avoid leading suits in which you hold 
tenace over the dummy, such as A O over the K, or 
K J against dummy's A Q. You should also avoid 
suits in which you have the second and third best 
guarded against dummy ; such as king when dummy 
holds ace and others, or queen when dummy has A 
K and others. You should never lead away from a 
queen or jack, with only one or two cards of the suit, 



LEADING UP TO DUMMY. 89 

if your partner has not led it, because he cannot have 
both ace and king, and the best chance for a trick in 
such a suit is to keep still. If you have A K J over 
dummy's queen, you may lead the king and stop, so as 
to catch the queen if your partner can come through ; 
but there is always the danger that the dealer may 
get a discard and your ace will never make. The 
score and the possible tricks in sight must decide 
such things. If you have the command of dummy's 
long suit, do not part with it unless you are compelled 
to, if you see that the dealer is trying to bring in that 
suit, especially after the trumps are gone. 

A great many of the positions which are given 
further on for playing against dummy at no-trump 
will be found equally useful with a declared trump. 

FORCINQ. 

It is always well to force the strong hand, espe- 
cially if you have the commanding trump and can stop 
his trump lead and force him again. But there are 
times when it is too late to force. It is very difficult 
to explain such positions to the beginner, but an ex- 
ample may make the principle clear. Suppose the 
dealer has made it a heart, and the dummy has A Q 
X, with an established suit. It is too late to force 
the strong hand, because he must have had at least 
five trumps when he made it, and he can well afford 
to take the force, exhaust the trumps, and discard all 
his losing cards on dummy's suit. Your only chance 



90 FOSTER S BRIDGE MANUAL. 

is to lead the suit which the dealer cannot trump and 
of which the dummy has not the command. 

When there is no established suit in dummy's 
hand and you have no evidence of one in the dealer's 
hand, you should force the one that made the trump, 
unless his partner has so many trumps that it cannot 
hurt him. Avoid forcing both adversaries, that is, 
allowing one to ruff and the other to discard, and 
also try to prevent a force which will give the adver- 
saries a cross ruff. 

It is often good play to force your partner when 
you are the pone and the dummy's trumps are weak, 
because he may be able to save a trump or two in 
this way which would otherwise be caught. Always 
force your partner when it is evident that he holds 
the second best trump unguarded. 

DISCARDING. 

The agony of the discard is one of the most mad- 
dening things at bridge. To have to sit and throw 
aw^ay card after card, without the slightest idea of 
what it w^ould be best to keep, or what is coming 
next, while the dealer or the dummy runs off a long 
suit or takes out four rounds of trumps, is sometimes 
enough to make one wish for some private signal 
like the rotary discard, to tell him what his partner 
has got. 

The best rule for the discard is to keep guard on 
the weak suits, especially two or three to a queen or 



THE DISCARD. QI 

jack, even if you have to blank aces or let a whole 
strong suit go to do it. The dealer is not going to 
lead your strong suit after the trumps are out, but 
most likely the suit in which you have only one honor. 
Even three to the ten may stop a whole suit and save 
three or four tricks, and the number of tricks that 
are lost by unguarding queens and jacks will run up 
into the thousands in a year at any bridge club. 

Discard Strength Always. This is the best dis- 
card for the beginner, in fact for the general run of 
players. We are speaking now of the play against a 
declared trump, remember, and even if the make is a 
protective one in spades, it is best to assume that the 
dealer and his partner have the strong trump hands, 
and as six or seven tricks will certainly fall to the 
trumps, there is little or no hope of making anything 
but the best cards in your long suit, so that you can 
well afford to throw the small ones away. The dis- 
card from strength has the additional advantage that 
it tells your partner at once what your best protected 
suit is. Some players insist that if the eldest hand 
has led one suit and the dealer leads the trumps, 
there are only two suits to hear from, and if the dis- 
card is made from weakness in one of them, the other 
must be the strong suit, and that it is not necessary 
to waste any of your strong suit in the discard, just 
to show it. 

This sounds well, but it will not fit all cases. Sup- 
pose the dealer does not lead the trumps^ but starts a 
suit, so as to get dummy in, and then dummy goes to 



92 FOSTER S BRIDGE MANUAL. 

trumps and you have to discard. How are you going 
to show that the suit which the dealer led is your 
suit ? 

Even if your partner has gone over the make, you 
should still discard your strong suit. Your partner 
is strong in trumps, of course, but he must have a 
number of good cards, and must have gone over on 
his own hand, not on yours. You must not assume, 
because your partner goes over, that you are going to 
make a grand slam against the maker. Whether 
there is any go-over or not, your discard should give 
immediate information to your partner of the suit in 
which there is the most probability of your winning 
a trick. If you go over yourself, you are supposed 
to know what to discard, and your partner will not be 
likely to think that you are throwing away any pos- 
sible tricks. If your partner goes over and he gets 
a discard, it is from weakness, of course, just as the 
maker of the trump would discard his weak suits. 

The great point in favor of the discard from strength 
is, that it keeps guard on your weak suits. If you 
have no strong suit, keep guard on the suits in which 
you have possible stoppers, such as two or three to a 
queen or jack, or four to a ten. You should be very 
careful about telling the dealer too much about suits 
in which the dummy is likely to take a finesse. Sup- 
pose you hold the 9 and 8 only, dummy having A K 
1076. If you discard this suit, the dealer knows in 
a moment that the queen is on his left, if he does not 
hold it himself, because with three to the queen you 



THE DISCARD. 93 

would keep that suit guarded against the combination 
in dummy's hand. You may sometimes use this as 
a device to deceive the dealer, as when you hold four 
to the queen, and discard your second best, as if you 
had nothing smaller. He may read your partner for 
the queen and take the finesse in dummy's hand, 
letting you in. Sometimes this is not as desirable as 
it looks, however, as it clears the suit, and it might 
be better to coax him to lead two rounds with his ace 
and king, after which you have the suit killed, unless 
dummy has a reentry. 

The Reverse Discard is used when you have to 
discard a weak suit, so as to keep guards in an- 
other weak suit. The object is to change the 
meaning of the ordinary discard. Suppose you have 
four clubs to the nine and three diamonds to the 
queen, hearts being trumps. You must keep the 
guards to the queen and let go the clubs, but in dis- 
carding them you throw away a higher first and then 
a lower, such as the six and then the four. The first 
discard says to your partner, '^ This is my strong 
suit," and a second discard from the same suit, if a 
higher card, would indicate that you were still pro- 
tected in it ; but if the second discard is a lower card 
than the first, it reverses the meaning of the first dis- 
card and says, '^ This suit is not my best, but I must 
let it go to keep something else." If the lowest card 
of a suit is discarded, such as the deuce, it must be 
from strength, but in using the reverse discard one 
should try to make it plain that it is not the lowest 



94 FOSTERS BRIDGE MANUAL. 

card, selecting such cards as the 8 and 3 in prefer- 
ence to the 4 and 3 from such a suit as 9 8 4 3. 

The reverse discard cannot be used by players who 
adopt the down-and-out echo to show no more of a 
suit, unless it is understood that such an echo shall 
not be used except in following suit. 



THE DEALER'S PLAY. 



WITH A DECLARED TRUMP SUIT. 

As soon as the first card is led and the dummy's 
hand is laid on the table, the dealer should take a 
little time to look over his resources, and see what he 
has to hope for and what he has to fear. He should 
know how many tricks it will take to save or win the 
game, and he should keep constantly before him the 
fact that he needs just so many tricks. If he sees 
that the game is in danger, and that the hand is prob- 
ably not going to turn out as well as he had hoped it 
would, his first care must be to save the game, if it is 
in danger. If the game is not in any immediate dan- 
ger, or if saving it is almost a certainty, he may take 
all the chances he pleases in order to win it, if he 
thinks it is in the cards ; but if that is not possible, 
he should play to get as many tricks as he can. 

When the dealer can see tricks enough in the two 
hands to win the game, he should never take any 
shots in the hope of making a big score until he has 
made sure that he will still win the game, even if his 
shot fails. Nothing is so absurd as to see a player 
take a chance in the hope of making two tricks when 
one more wins the game and rubber, and that one is 
right in front of him if he will only take it. 

95 



g6 Foster's bridge manual. 

Estimating Probable Triclcs. After looking over 
both hands carefully, it should be an easy matter to 
see how many tricks are a certainty and how many 
others are either possible or probable. The ability to 
make a rapid estimate of the value of a hand is not 
common, but it can be acquired with practice, and 
the beginner should devote special attention to it, as 
this and attention to the score are the two most im- 
portant things in the game. 

The great thing is to make the problem as simple 
as possible, by eliminating the suits in which tricks 
are impossible, and confining the attention to those 
in which it is probable that something may be made. 
As an example of what is meant, take a pack of cards 
and sort out the following hand : — ■ 

gKQio93 ^642 0A5 ^Q73 

The score being 24 to nothing against you, you 
have made it a heart. The king of diamonds is led, 
and dummy lays down the following cards, which you 
should also sort out and place on the table opposite 
you, so that you may better understand the position : — 

c:pA42 ♦Q/ 01062 4jkA 10963 

After winning the first trick with the ace of dia- 
monds, what chance have you to get the four by cards 
which is necessary to win the game ? You are prac- 
tically certain of two by cards, five tricks in trumps 
and two in spades, but how can you get two more ? 
In diamonds there is nothing but the ruff, and a trick 
in clubs is out of the question if the adversaries play 



ESTIMATING PROBABLE TRICKS. 97 

well. You must make any extra tricks in the spade 
suit if at all, and although the king and jack are both 
against you, you must try to get four tricks in that 
suit, because if you cannot do so, you cannot win the 
game. How the spade suit should be managed so as 
to accomplish this will be better understood when 
you have read the chapter on playing certain combi- 
nations of cards in two hands, so as to get the best 
results. 

Here is another example, a little more difficult than 
the foregoing, but well worth the student's attention, 
because it shows a form in which the problem very 
often presents itself. Sort out and give yourself the 
following cards : — 

A K Q lo 7 5 4* K lo 7 3 g lo ♦ K 5. 

You are a game in and nothing on the second, and 
you make it a diamond, so it will take eleven tricks 
to win the game. The six of trumps is the opening 
lead, the probable reason for which has been given 
under the head of original leads. Dummy lays down 
the following hand, which you should sort out and lay 
on the table opposite you : — 

08432 j^ 4 9A98762 ^86 

You win the first trick with the queen over the 
jack, and return the trump, the original leader dis- 
carding the deuce of clubs. There are now nine 
tricks in sight for a certainty, eight in trumps and the 
ace of hearts. In order to get eleven tricks you must 
make both your kings, which is very improbable if 



98 Foster's bridge manual. 

you think of the reason for the opening lead ; or you 
must establish a trick in hearts and make one of your 
kings. Now, how should you play the hand so as to 
accomplish this ? 

Leading Trumps instead of Ruffing. A very im- 
portant point to decide early in the hand is whether 
or not to lead trumps immediately upon getting in. 
There are a great many hands in which it is better to 
play one or two rounds in plain suits, especially if 
you have the advantage of position, as in leading to 
tenaces, but if you have a long suit which you have 
any hopes of establishing, and have any trumps to sup- 
port it, it is almost invariably better to have a round 
or two of trumps first, so as to disarm the adver- 
saries. Suppose spades are trumps and dummy holds 
five of them to the A K and six clubs to the jack. 
The dealer has only three clubs to the K 10 and two 
small trumps. With nine clubs between the two 
hands, it is better to have at least two rounds of 
trumps immediately upon getting in, than it is to start 
on the club suit, for fear that one adversary might 
have the command and the other might ruff it off. 

Whenever possible, a player should try to ruff the 
hand that is weak in trumps before starting to lead 
trumps from the strong hand. In the foregoing ex- 
ample, if there were any way in which the two small 
spades in the dealer's hand could be made before 
leading trumps from dummy to save the club suit, 
that would be a still better play. 

Second Hand Play from Dummy. The principles 



DUMMY, SECOND HAND. 99 

governing the play of dummy's cards will be given 
fully in connection with no-trumpers, and as the situ- 
ations which are there explained apply equally to the 
play with a declared trump it is needless to antici- 
pate them here. Allowance must be made for the 
difference in the system of original leads, how- 
ever, especially for the fact that a good player will 
never open a hand by leading away from an ace, so 
that it is always useless to put up the king second 
hand in the hope that it will hold the trick. When 
you are not opposed to good players, you may pre- 
sume on their having led badly, of course ; but do not 
attempt it against experts. 

Advantage may often be taken of the information 
given by the original lead of a fourth-best, either to 
avoid wasting your strength by putting up needlessly 
high cards from dummy's hand, or to save your own 
good cards. Suppose a six is led, and dummy has 
the A 1092, you holding the K 4 3. Of the cards 
out against the leader in that suit, you know by the 
eleven rule that you hold all but 'one. If you allow 
dummy to pass the 6, your king will be forced, even 
if the third hand has nothing higher than the 7 or 8. 
But if dummy covers with the 9 it will hold the trick 
if the leader has both Q and J, and he will never 
make a trick in the suit. 

Trump Leads. When one has to lead trumps 
from a disadvantageous combination of cards, one 
should always play in such a manner as to coax the 
higher trumps, instead of attempting to force them. 



lOO FOSTERS BRIDGE MANUAL. 

For instance : You have six trumps to the king in 
dummy's hand, and queen and two small in your own. 
If you lead the queen from one hand or the king from 
the other, the ace is sure to kill it, no matter which 
adversary holds the ace ; but if you lead a small 
trump, say from your own cards, and the ace is sec- 
ond hand, it will very probably go right up, so as to 
shut out the king and stop the trump lead, and you 
will make both your king and queen of trumps. If 
the ace does not go up, you can play your king third 
hand, and if it loses you are no worse off than if you 
had led the queen. It being an even chance that the 
ace is second hand and will go up, you will save both 
your king and queen of trumps, about half the time, 
simply by leading a small card. The same is true of 
such combinations as K Q J, when these cards are 
divided between the two hands. Do not lead out one 
of the high cards, under the mistaken notion that you 
must do so in order to force out the ace. Lead a 
small card, and perhaps the ace will go up of itself 
without any forcing. If it does not, it will be time 
enough to play one of your high cards third hand, so 
as to force the ace or to hold the trick. 

Finessing. The dealer and the dummy have to do 
a good deal of finessing in order to take advantage of 
their knowledge of the position of the cards. As 
they have the strong trump hands, finessing is justi- 
fiable and expected, but they should be careful about 
making finesses which cannot win as much as they 
may lose. When it is a question of a single trick 



FINESSE AND REENTRY. lOI 

either way, to win it or to lose it, it is useless to 
finesse unless the trick that may be gained is of some 
decided advantage, such as winning the game, or 
making some extra points on a game which is already 
won. 

It is foolish to finesse against one card if that card 
will let a player in to make two tricks in another suit 
which were otherwise impossible, yet we see that 
done every day. If you do any finessing, do it against 
the player who cannot hurt you ; who has none of his 
partner's suit to give him, or who must lead up to 
your tenaces, or something of that kind. We shall 
have more to say on this subject of finessing when we 
come to the no-trumpers. 

Reentries, When one hand is strong in trumps 
and the other hand has a long suit, the preservation 
of reentry cards is often very important, and in look- 
ing over the possibilities of a hand at the start, you 
should be careful to note in which hand the reentries 
must be preserved, if possible. When you have the 
choice of winning, or attempting to win, a trick in 
either hand, you should always decide in favor of 
winning it with the hand that does not want the 
reentry. Suppose hearts are trumps, and dummy has 
six spades to the queen, you having A K alone. A 
diamond is led through your king and two small, the 
dummy holding queen and two small. Put on the 
king, because if it loses to the ace, your queen is 
good for reentry in dummy's hand, whereas if you 
pass it, and the ace is on your right, dummy may 



I02 Foster's bridge manual. 

have to play the queen to win the trick and then his 
spade suit is dead. 

Keeping a small trump in one hand, so as to be 
able to put the other hand in, is often a very neces- 
sary precaution when reentry cards are needed. The 
adversaries will often be able to take out your reen- 
tries in plain suits, but they are not so likely to do so 
in trumps. Suppose dummy holds A 8 4 2, and the 
dealer has the K Q 1093. Nothing can be lost by 
playing the nine when the ace is led, keeping the 
three in case it should be necessary to put the lead in 
dummy's hand later on. 

It will sometimes be necessary to let the adver- 
saries win a trick in order to keep a reentry until it 
is needed. Suppose you have the king of a suit in 
which the ace has been played, and dummy holds the 
jack and two small. The queen is led, and you want 
to keep the king until after you can get in and have 
another round of trumps. Pass the queen, and if the 
suit is continued, the jack wins, the round of trumps 
comes out, and your king is still good for reentry. 

Over= Trumping. Some players are in too great a 
hurry to over-trump. If an adversary ruffs, they 
immediately over-ruff, if they can, without stopping 
to think of the disadvantage of the lead or the advan- 
tage of being able to keep their trumps together and 
forcing the player who ruffs to open a new suit. A 
great many tricks are lost by over-trumping with one 
of the cards which would be major tenace if the trick 
was passed. Suppose you hold A 10 of trumps, and 



OVER-TRUMPING. IO3 

the player on your right ruffs with the jack, the 
queen being played, but the king still to come. If 
you over-trump you must lose your ten, but if you let 
the jack make, your cards are major tenace and you 
must make both of them. 



NO-TRUMPERS. 



THE ADVERSARIES' PLAY. 

The great difference between playing against a 
trump declaration and against a no-trumper is, that in 
the first case you are opposed to a decided superior- 
ity in trumps, which cuts short all the plain suits, and 
in the second case you are opposed to a decided supe- 
riority in plain suits, which cuts short all possibilities 
except in one suit. Almost every no-trumper has 
one weak spot in it, and if you can find it you an ay 
make quite a run on that suit ; but against a declared 
trump the best you can hope for is to make all your 
good cards in several different suits. 

In trump declarations, analysis shows that seven or 
eight tricks in every deal, on the average, fall to the 
trumps, leaving only five or six to be played for in 
plain suits, and if more than two tricks are taken in 
any one plain suit, it is usually the dealer that gets 
them. 

In no-trumpers, there being no trumps to cut you 
short, your suits are as good as the dealer's, your 
success in making these suits depending on their 
strength or on your possibilities of reentry, the re- 
entry being usually the important thing. 

When there is a trump suit, unless it is a spade, 



lOJ 



PLAY AGAINST NO-TRUMPERS. IO5 

the strength declared agamst you is trump strength. 
In a no-trumper, strength is also declared against 
you, but it is plain-suit strength. In either case, you 
must remember that the dealer's side is always the 
strong side and that you are on the defensive. 

The conditions against you in a no-trumper usually 
are : the aces of two suits at least, probably three, and 
certainly three suits stopped, unless the make is a 
desperate one to the score. The advantage which 
the dealer has over you is, that if he has one good suit 
he is almost sure to get into the lead early and run it 
off. As he has control of the majority of the suits, 
it is very difficult to keep him out of the lead, except 
by playing all your winning cards immediately. This 
would be a very dangerous thing to do, however, be- 
cause the suit in which you hold winning cards is 
probably the very one in which he is weak, and by 
giving up the command of it you probably leave him 
master of the situation in all four suits. 

It is hardly necessary to say that if you have five 
or six sure tricks in any suit, you should go right 
ahead and make them, while you are in the lead, but 
such cases are too obvious to need any instruction. 
Failing such a suit as this, the advantage you have 
over the dealer is, that you have the opening lead and 
can get a suit started immediately, perhaps clearing it 
up on the first round. It may happen that this is 
one of the suits of which he has the ace, and that by 
forcing this ace out of his hand so early in the play you 
may cripple him very severely. If it does not weaken 



io6 Foster's bridge manual. 

his hand, he will part with his ace wilUngly, and go 
ahead with his suit ; but if he is at all afraid of your 
suit he will probably hold up the ace of it for two or 
three rounds, at least until he thinks your partner 
has none to lead to you. When the dealer holds up 
an ace in this manner, it is a confession of weakness, 
and you may at once infer that either you or your 
partner hold a stopper in his best suit, and that he 
is afraid you will use that card to reenter your own 
suit with. 

The advantage of the opening lead being the only 
one you have over the dealer, it is manifestly foolish 
to throw it away by leading a suit in which you can 
accomplish nothing, and for this reason a short or 
weak suit should never be led against a no-trump dec- 
laration. No matter how weak your suit is, lead the 
longest you have. Even if it contains only one honor, 
the number of small cards in it is in itself a protec- 
tion, because it is unlikely that the dealer is also long 
in it. . 

Having started a suit, and perhaps cleared it, your 
great difficulty will be to get into the lead again, and 
your ability to do so will depend on your reentries. 
These reentries may be of two kinds; in the suit 
itself, or in another suit. The probability being 
against your having a long suit and reentry in another 
suit when a no-trumper is declared against you, it be- 
comes necessary to play your long suits in such a way 
as to preserve the reentries in the suit itself. There 
is no rush to make your high cards in several suits 



PLAY AGAINST NO-TRUMPERS. lO/ 

before the leader gets discards and then ruffs, and the 
great thing is to bring in the small cards, so as to 
make as much as you can out of one suit. 

It is to be expected that the dealer will stop your 
suit, at least once. The other obstacle which must 
be overcome is the danger that your own partner will 
block it. In order that he may have no hesitation 
about getting out of your way, he should be able to 
depend on you absolutely for certain combinations or 
numbers of cards when you open a suit in a certain 
way. You must not expect a partner to give up wan- 
ning cards for the purpose of unblocking, unless you 
can inspire him with such confidence in the accuracy 
of your play that he feels he runs no risk in his at- 
tempts to get out of your way. 

These two considerations, the necessity for keep- 
ing reentries yourself, and the importance of securing 
your partner's assistance in unblocking, require us to 
make some very material changes in the system of 
opening leads which you have learned for use in play- 
ing agamst a trump declaration. Those leads must 
be abandoned in favor of ones which will better secure 
the two great objects which we have in view in play- 
ing against a no-trumper. 

NO 'TRUMP LEADS. 

Your first lead must be made in the dark, but the 
moment dummy's hand is on the table your partner 
should be able to form a fairly correct estimate of the 



io8 



FOSTER S BRIDGE MANUAL, 



possibilities of your suit. The longer your suit is, the 
greater the danger that he will block it, and the 
more careful you must be to make it clear to him 
that he will lose nothing by getting out of your way. 
For this reason the leads from very long suits must 
be so arranged that they can be easily distinguished 
from those from shorter suits. The rules for the 
high-card leads are as follows : — 

The Ace is never led without at least seven cards 
of the suit, except in two cases, which are when you 
hold either of the following combinations : — 



and others. 







and others. 



From the first of these lead the ace, and if the 
queen is not in dummy's hand, lead the king, inviting 
your partner to give up the queen if he has it. This 
he should do, whether he has smaller cards or not, so 
that you may know you are safe in going on. If the 
queen is in the dealer's hand and guarded, your play 
does not matter unless you switch suits, because your 
partner can neither assist nor hinder you. 

From the second combination, lead the ace only 
when you have a reasonable chance of reentry in an- 
other suit, otherwise lead the queen, so as to get the 
king out of your way on the first round if the ad- 



LEADS AT NO-TRUMP. 



109 



versaries hold it. If your partner holds it, he will 
give it up when the ace follows the queen, because 
queen-ace is not led from any other combination of 
cards. The danger of leading the ace first is, that 
the two rounds may take out the only cards your part- 
ner has in the suit and he will then be unable to re- 
turn it to you if he gets in. If you can get in your- 
self, this does not matter, but it is always better to 
have a suit in such shape that it can be brought in if 
either partner gets the lead. The importance of this 
will be better understood when we come to the deal- 
er's reasons for finessing against you. 

The King. From the following combination : — 



six cards in suit, 



if you have a possible reentry card, begin with the 
king, otherwise lead the fourth-best. With only five 
in suit, begin with the small card, even if you have a 
reentry in another suit. Many players are afraid to lead 
away from ace-king, but it will win in the long run, and 
will often kill a twice guarded queen in dummy's hand. 
From the following combinations : — 







at least seven in suit. 




any number in suit. 



no 



FOSTER S BRIDGE MANUAL 



lead the king ; but with less than seven in suit the 
fourth-best should be led from all suits headed by 
king and queen, without either jack or ten. 

Queen and Jack. With the following combina- 
tions : — 






■frm any number in suit, 






any number in suit, 






any number in suit, 



begin with the lowest of the sequence, the jack from 
the first and second ; the queen from the third. Then 
go on up, leading the next higher card on each round. 
From the following combinations : — 



any number in suit, 






at least six in suit, 



lead the queen. These are the only queen leads, 
except that already given of leading the queen from 
A Q J when there is no reentry card. 



LEADS AT NO-TRUMP. 



Ill 



The Ten, From the following combination : 






any number in suit, 



lead the ten. This is the only combination from 
which a ten is led against a no-trumper. 

The Fourth=best, From the following combina- 
tions : — 












less than seven in suit, 



less than seven in suit, 



less than seven in suit. 



less than seven in suit, 



always lead the fourth-best. 

Weak Leads. When you open a suit which is not 
headed by any of the foregoing high-card combina- 
tions, lead the fourth-best always. But when a suit 
is so weak that you cannot reasonably expect to take 
any tricks in it, you should lead some card which will 



112 Foster's bridge manual. 



warn your partner of your weakness. The common 
practice in such cases is to lead the second-best card 
if it is not higher than an eight. As soon as your 
partner sees dummy's cards he can usually tell that 
your lead is an intermediate and not a legitimate 
fourth-best. From suits headed by the jack or ten 
such leads are useful, because the fourth-best would 
indicate a strength which you do not possess, and the 
top of the suit would conflict with the leads from high 
cards. It is only when the suit is short, such as four 
cards only, that such interior leads should be used. 
When you have five or more, lead the fourth-best as 
usual. 

LEADING TO PASSED MAKES. 

When you are playing against a no-trumper which 
has been made by the dummy, it is called a passed 
make. As you must lead before you see dummy's 
cards, this will make no difference in your openings 
and you should begin with your longest suit. The 
chief difference in leading to passed makes is, that 
your reentry cards are not as probable against a 
passed make as against an original make, unless they 
are aces. When the make is a passed one, the 
strength is on your left, and your guarded kings 
will probably be led through and more than likely 
finessed against and killed. When the make is 
original, a guarded king is very likely a stopper in the 
dealer's suit, and a very good reentry card. 



LEADING TO A GO-OVER. I 1 3 

LEADING TO GO-OVER NO=TRUMPERS. 

If you go over a no-trumper yourself, you should 
certainly know what to do with your own cards. If it 
is your partner that, goes over, it is a conventionality 
of the game that you should lead the best heart you 
have in 3-^our hand, regardless of number. Even if you 
have a good suit of your own, you should begin with 
the hearts, because if you lead another suit first, 
your partner will take it that you have no hearts, and 
he will probably discard a number from his own hand, 
in order to protect himself in some other suit. It 
will be time enough for you to get in your suit when 
your partner has done with the hearts. 

In England, and in some parts of America, when 
the pone goes over, the eldest hand is supposed to 
guess at his partner's suit, and is usually guided by 
the one in which he is weakest himself. This is a 
pure gamble and misses much oftener than it hits. 
The system also encourages the pone to go over on 
one suit, on the chance that his partner will hit it. 
If he does, all is well, but if he does not, and the odds 
are against it, the tricks cost just twice as much as 
they should have done. 

It has been found much more satisfactory to estab- 
lish a conventional lead against a no-trumper when 
the pone goes over. This may seem to be an advan- 
tage for the pone, because he is able to demand that 
a certain suit shall be led, but it is also an advantage 
to the dealer, because the pone cannot go over unless 



114 FOSTER S BRIDGE MANUAL. 

an original heart lead will suit his hand, and it is also 
something for the dealer to know what suit will be 
led, in case he has any hesitation about going back» 
It is a disadvantage to the pone in one way, because 
he cannot go over when he really has a go-over hand 
but is weak in hearts. For beginners, and for the 
majority of experts, the conventional heart lead is, in 
my opinion, the best for a no-trumper, gone over by 
the pone. 



THIRD HAND PLAY. 



AGAINST NO-TRUMPERS 

The ability and willingness of the third hand to 
support his partner will depend on his knowledge of 
the manner in which the various combinations of cards 
are led from, and his confidence that his partner will 
not lead him into sacrificing good cards under the 
mistaken impression that he is unblocking. Nothing 
is so discouraging as playing with a cowardly part- 
ner, who is afraid to follow the regulation leads and 
therefore will not open with a small card from a suit 
headed by the ace and king. You cannot compel a 
player to lead correctly, however, so you must make 
allowances for ignorance and peculiarities and take no 
chances in giving up winning cards to unblock, un- 
less you are sure you are not going to lose by it. 

When Ace is led, always keep your smallest card, if 
you have more than two of the suit, no matter what 
they are. If you have two only, and one is the king, 
give up the king on the first round, even if dummy 
has none of the suit. If dummy has the queen 
guarded, you must keep the king, so as to save that 
trick, but otherwise it is very important to get out of 
your partner's way when he begins with the ace of a 



ii; 



ii6 



FOSTER S BRIDGE MANUAL, 



suit. When you have three such cards as K Q x, 
Q J X, or J lo X, remember to give up the second best 
card on the first round, keeping the smallest, so as to 
unblock. 

Echoes on High Cards Led. Upon any high card 
led, always keep the lowest of four cards, so as to un- 
block. Some players follow suit with the second-best 
on the first round and drop to the next lower on the 
second round. This is to enable the leader to count 
the suit, because if the second card played is the 
lowest of the suit, there is only one remaining ; if 
there may be a smaller, two remain ; and if the first 
card played was smaller than the second played, none 
remain. This system would require the seven and 
five to be played from the following combinations on 
any high card led : — 










With more than four in suit it is not necessary to 
echo, because it is improbable that your partner has 
any more of the suit than you have if dummy follows 
suit on the first round. Whether you or the leader 
should get in with the tail end of the suit will depend 
on which of you should have the lead, so as to go 
through other suits to advantage. 



ECHOES BY THIRD HAND. I 1 7 

Some players do not echo unless they can win the 
third round of the suit ; that is, unless they hold the 
queen, or have the jack and see that the queen must 
fall. Even then, it is better to give up the winning 
card to unblock, than to show it and hold it up. 

The advantage of showing number in a suit by the 
echo is, that it enables the leader to see how the suit 
is distributed and to judge whether or not he should 
go on. Some players confine the echo to four cards 
of the suit only, while others prefer to echo with 
either three or four. 

When Small Cards are Led, and the third hand 
holds honors in the suit, it is usual to echo by winning 
with the ace and returning the king, or winning with 
the king and returning the queen, when you have 
four exactly. If you have less than four, and win the 
first trick with an honor, return the higher of two 
remaining, or the lowest of three, unless one of your 
three is better than any that dummy holds, in which 
case lead back the card that dummy cannot win, sq 
as to give your partner a possible finesse over the 
dealer. 

Never Finesse Against Your Partner. This is 
one of the most important rules in the game. When 
he leads a small card and you hold ace and queen, 
never finesse the queen ; if you hold king and jack, 
never finesse the jack. If dummy has the intermedi- 
ate card, it is not a finesse, as your cards are equal. 
There are exceptional cases in which you may hold 
up the best card of a suit or finesse against the dealer, 



ii8 Foster's bridge manual. 

so as to keep the command of dummy's reentry cards, 
but such things must be learned from practice. 

When Intermediate Cards are Led, your play will 
depend on the situation, and the cards exposed in 
dummy's hand. If your partner leads the ten and 
you have the ace, put it on if dummy has not the 
queen, and return any card you have that will beat 
dummy. The eight or nine would be a great card 
under such circumstances. If the queen is led, and 
you have the ace and two small, pass the queen and 
allow the king to make, so as to clear the suit, if you 
have a reentry in another suit ; if not, put on the ace, 
on the chance of catching the king alone in the deal- 
er's hand, and return the suit at once, so as to clear 
it. If the king is in dummy's hand, you will, of 
course, keep your ace as long as dummy keeps the 
king, if you can. If you hold both ace and king and 
the queen is led, win the queen when you have only 
one small card ; pass it if you have two. The only 
exception to giving up the king when you have 
A K X is when the ten is three times guarded in 
dummy's hand, because it is then obvious that the 
dealer has none of the suit, and three tricks are all 
you can make in it, unless partner holds a reentry. 

When Jack or King is Led, give up the ace if you 
have only one smaller card, otherwise hold.it. If the 
king is led and the jack is twice guarded in dummy's 
hand, you must keep the ace until the jack falls. If 
the jack is not in dummy's hand, your partner must 
have seven cards of the suit, headed by king and 



OPENING NEW SUITS. II 9 

queen, or he must have K O lO and perhaps fewer 
cards. In the first case he should be able to catch 
the jack, and in the second case he has the finesse of 
the ten against the dealer. 

Opening New Suits. It will often happen that 
your partner will open a suit in which you see that he 
is not very strong, and you have a suit which you 
think stands a better chance. Under such circum- 
stances it is quite justifiable for you to abandon his 
suit and play your own. Take the following example : 
The score being 24-0 against him, the dealer has 
made it no trump. Eldest hand leads the four of 
spades and the dummy lays down : — 

9976 •?'Jio75 08 4^K865 2. 

The pone holds the following cards : — 

9J10 4.A32 oj 10 9643 ^A;. 

Dummy plays small and the ace drops the queen 
from the dealer. It is useless to pursue the spades, 
because even if the king is forced out, the eight stops 
the suit, so the pone should start his diamonds, going 
up to dummy's weakness in that suit. By beginning 
with one of the sequence, so as to cover the eight in 
dummy's hand, the suit may be cleared or established, 
unless the dealer has A K Q of it. 

Killing Reentries. It is bad policy for the pone 
to open a new suit if it is one in which he holds the 
command over dummy, or if it contains a stopper in 
dummy's long suit. As long as that card is held, it 



I20 Foster's bridge manual. 



may be useful to kill dummy's reentry if the suit is 
short, or to stop the suit entirely, if it is long, in 
dummy's hand. 

The Eleven Rule Finesse, When your partner 
leads a fourth-best card and you know by the eleven 
rule that there is only one card out against him, 
higher than the one led, it is often advisable to take 
the finesse against that card if a successful finesse 
will kill a commanding card in dummy's hand. Take 
the following example : Eldest hand leads the 4 ; 
dummy lays down Q 9 7 and you hold K 10 8. 
Dummy plays the 7. There is only one card in the 
dealer's hand which is higher than the 4, If that card 
is the ace, your 8 will force it, and your K 10 will kill 
the Q. If the J is the card in the dealer's hand, you 
lose nothing by passing and have everything to gain, 
because your partner's ace and your king will make 
the whole suit, killing the twice-guarded queen. If 
the dealer's card is not an honor, you make every trick 
in the suit by the finesse, because the return of the 
king, followed by the ten, gives your partner a clear 
field. 

Holding Up Aces. Both the pone and the eldest 
hand should be slow to part with the ace of a suit in 
which the dealer and dummy appear to be long, at 
least until one or the other is exhausted, because it is 
easier for them to make the tail end of a suit when 
both have some cards of it, than when only one of 
them holds it. 

Discards. The usual theory of discarding against 



DISCARDS AT NO-TRUMP. 12 1 

a no-trumper is, that as there are no trumps to stop 
your good suits, you may as well keep them and dis- 
card from your weak ones ; whereas when there is a 
trump, you have little or no chance to make the small 
cards of your strong suits, so you discard them, at the 
same time letting your partner know just what to lead 
if he gets in before you do. 

The great objection to discarding from weak suits 
when playing against a no-trumper is, that the suit 
from which you discard may be the very one in which 
the dealer is trying to force discards, and that by let- 
ting go even one card of it, you may make it possible 
for him to bring in the whole suit. Many a rubber has 
been saved by keeping three cards to the jack or ten. 

For the beginner especially, the best rule is to dis- 
card always from the strong suit. One suit having 
been shown by the partner and one led by the dealer, 
it looks reasonable to say that a discard from either of 
the other two will show strength in the one which is 
not discarded. But showing strength is not the 
important thing, it is keeping guard on the dealer's 
suits. Against a trump declaration, you discard from 
strength because the strength in trumps is declared 
against you. Why should you not also disca^rd from 
strength when the strength in plain suits is declared 
against you, as it always is in a no-trumper ? The 
times in which you will lose through having discarded 
one or two cards of your long suit are nothing com- 
pared to the tricks you will save by keeping guards 
on your weak suits. 



DUMMY'S CARDS. 



THE ADVERSARIES' PLAY. 

There are a great many cases in which the third 
hand must depart from the usual rules of play on 
account of certain combinations of cards which he 
sees exposed in the dummy's hand. These are too ' 
varied to be fully described in a work of this kind, 
and such matters are better learned from experience. 
With a thorough knowledge of the leads, good infer- 
ences as to the cards held by the eldest hand, and a 
careful study of the possibilities of dummy's hand, 
especially if it is dummy that made it no trump, the 
pone should be able to suit his play to the circum- 
stances of the case so as to take full advantage of his 
position, either in finessing against the dummy's 
exposed cards, holding up command of his suits, or 
killing his reentries. 

Leading up to Dummy. The principal things, to 
be kept in mind when the dummy is on your right 
are : not to lead up to fourchettes or tenaces ; not to 
clear his suits or establish his reentries for him ; and 
to lead up to his weak suits in preference to his strong 
suits. Dummy may be weak in two ways : he may 
have nothing higher than the eight or nine, or he 



X22 



LEADING UP TO DUMMY. 1 23 

may have a short suit headed by the ace or the king. 
By leading up to an ace you may force out a valuable 
reentry card early in the hand. Leading up to a king 
is not so disadvantageous as some persons suppose, 
unless you hold the ace of the suit yourself. When 
the ace or king is accompanied by one or two small 
cards, and you have a card which is better than these 
small cards, you should lead it. A seven or eight 
will often force out an ace. 

In leading up to dummy you should never forget 
the importance of giving your partner a possible 
finesse against the dealer. Remember that as there 
are only two unknown hands, it is an even chance 
that your partner holds any named card, while it is 
three to one against either his or the dealer's holding 
two named cards or neither of them. It is also about 
an even chance that your partner holds two out of 
three unknown cards, such as A K Q of a suit, or 
only one of them. These odds are slightly increased 
if it is the dummy that has made the no-trumper, and 
are slightly lessened if the dealer made it, because 
in the latter case the chances are in favor of the deal- 
er's holding the majority of the honors in any given 
suit of which neither you nor dummy have an honor 
higher than the ten or jack. 

When You Open a New Suit, the same rules should 
be followed for the leads from high-card combinations 
as those given for the eldest hand, unless the cards 
exposed in the dummy's hand may make an exception. 
With A K J and others, and the O doubly guarded in 



124 FOSTERS BRIDGE MANUAL. 

dummy's hand, it is usually better to switch after lead- 
ing the king, so as to get the finesse over the queen, 
unless the game is in danger and the ace and king 
should be made immediately in order to save it. If 
the queen is not in dummy's hand it is obviously use- 
less to wait for the finesse. The same is true of K 
Q lO when dummy holds the J. When you hold the 
major tenace, A Q, or A Q J, or even A J, and 
dummy has the king, it is better to avoid the suit 
altogether unless the trick is necessary to save the 
game, or unless you are reasonably sure of getting in 
again if you lead the suit and clear it. 

With A Q lo and others, J in dummy's hand, lead 
the O, so as to prevent J and K from both making 
against you. 

With A J 9 and others, the lo in dummy's hand, 
lead the jack. 

With A J lo, dummy holding K and others, lead 
the jack, and after that avoid the suit, unless the ace 
is necessary to save the game. 

With K Q and others, the jack in dummy's hand, 
you cannot afford to risk the lead of a small card. If 
you lead the king and it holds the trick, do not be too 
sure that your partner has the ace, and if you go on, 
lead the queen, unless the jack is still guarded. This 
will bring the jack and ace down together if the dealer 
has been holding up on you for a Bath coup. 

With singly-guarded honors, such as K x, Q x, 
J X, the honor is often a good lead if dummy has no 
higher card in the suit. The queen is a better lead 



LEADING UP TO DUMMY. 1 25 

than the king, the only danger being that the dealer 
holds fourchette. 

With Q J X, or J 10 X, always lead the top of the 
suit. With Q 10 X, dummy having either A or K, 
but not both those cards, you should lead the queen, 
if the suit must be opened, because unless your part- 
ner has an honor the dealer must have a finesse over 
you with K J or A J. 

With K 10 X, the J in dummy's hand, do not touch 
the suit if you can help it. With king and others, 
the queen in dummy's hand, avoid the suit if you can. 

In all suits in which you are long and strong, such 
as A K or A Q, lead the fourth-best if dummy has 
no honor, especially if you have any reentry. 

Leading Through Dummy, After your original 
lead, should you get in again, there are certain com- 
binations which it may be your advantage to lead 
through if you see them in dummy's hand, and there 
are others which it is better to avoid. It is useless 
to lead through such strong suits as A K Q, A K J, 
or K Q J, because you simply allow the dealer to 
get them going without having to give up any re- 
entry card in another suit. It is also useless to lead 
through fourchettes when you have the intermediate 
card yourself, and it is very bad policy to lead a suit 
in which dummy holds one of those combinations in 
which he will certainly have a safe finesse against 
you. Never lead the missing card through a four- 
chette, such as the Q through K J, or the J through 
Q 10. If you have both the missing cards of an im- 



126 Foster's bridge manual. 

perfect fourchette, such as the Q and ], dummy hold- 
ing K lo, the Q is not a bad lead, because if your 
partner has the ace you make every trick in the suit, 
while if the dealer has it your play does not matter. 

With A Q lo X, dummy holding J x x x, play 
the lo. If your partner has the king, you make 
every trick in the suit. If dummy holds K x x, 
lead the queen. If dummy passes, you make two 
tricks ; if he covers, you have tenace over the jack. 

With A lo 9 X, dummy having J x x x, play the lO. 
If your partner holds either K or Q, your remaining 
cards are tenace over the other honor. 

With A J lo X, dummy holding Q x x x, lead the 
J if the suit must be opened, but it would be better 
to avoid it. If dummy has no honor in the suit, lead 
the lo. 

With a king and others of a suit in which dummy 
holds ace, avoid the suit as long as possible, and put 
dummy into the lead at the end if you can, so that 
the suit shall be led to you and not through you. 
With the king alone, play it if dummy has the ace ; 
keep it if he has not. 

When Dummy Leads Through You, your chief 
care will be to protect yourself against successful 
finesses by the dealer, and to support your partner. 

When dummy leads supporting cards they must be 
for the purpose of giving the dealer a finesse, unless 
he holds the cards in sequence with the one led. 
When dummy leads small cards, the dealer must hold 
honors in the suit and it is useless for you to cover 



DUMMY ON YOUR RIGHT. 12/ 

second hand, unless you have one or more honors in 
sequence, which will prevent the dealer from finess- 
ing too deeply. If you have any sequence superior 
to the card led by dummy, cover with the lowest of 
the sequence. You should be careful not to false- 
card, as your partner is the only one to be deceived. 

With A K and others, play the K second hand, no 
matter what card dummy leads. 

With A Q and others, dummy having nothing 
higher than the 9, play the ace second hand, not the 
queen. To play the queen is to finesse against your 
partner, and the only way to make both ace and queen 
is to play the ace on the first round. Do not pass 
altogether, or you may carry your ace home. 

With K O 10, play the O, unless dummy has the 
J. With A J 10 X, play the A if dummy has no 
honor in the suit, but if dummy leads a supporting 
card, such as the 9, play the 10, which will give you 
tenace in the suit, even if the dealer has both K and Q. 
* With A J X, play the J on a supporting 10 or 9 led 
from dummy. This prevents a finesse, and retains 
command of the suit. If dummy holds both K and 
Q, play the A to make sure of the trick, because you 
still have the jack to stop the suit and avoid the pos- 
sibility that if you allow the king to win the suit will 
never be led again. Don't run the risk of carrying 
home aces when playing against no-trumpers. 

With K X X, dummy not having the A, never play 
the K unless the O is led through you. 

With O X X, do not play the Q unless both A and 



128 Foster's bridge manual. ' 

m 

K are in the dummy, or the J is led through you. 
If your partner has the J guarded, you have the suit 
stopped between you, provided you play low second 
hand. If dummy leads the J from A J and others, 
put on the Q, on the chance that it may make the 
lo good in your partner's hand. 

With A X X, dummy leading supporting cards 
through you, such as Q, J, or lo, hold off until you see 
how the suit lies, or until one adversary is exhausted. 

With K and one or two small cards, dummy leading 
Q from Q lO and others, play the K at once. You 
can not save it, but you may make the 9 good in 
your partner's hand. If you have three or more small 
cards, hold up the king, because the dealer must be 
short in the suit and will probably not be able to pass 
often enough to catch your king. 

With short suits, it is best to cover an honor with 
an honor, unless the honor led through you is a sin- 
gleton. 

With any Fourchette, cover the card led. Four- 
chettes are of two kinds, perfect and imperfect. The 
perfect is formed by the cards immediately above and 
below the one led, such as A Q over the K, or K J 
over the Q. The imperfect is formed by the card 
above the one led, and the next but one below it ; 
such as A J over the K, or K 10 over the Q. The 
card next but one above is not a fourchette at all ; 
such as K 10 over the J, or A J over the Qo 

It is very important to cover wuth fourchettes, 
because it compels the adversaries to play two honors 



DUMMY ON YOUR LEFT. 1 29 

to win one trick, and often makes an inferior card 
in your partner s hand good enough to stop a whole 
suit. 

When Dummy Plays After You. As both the 
others have played, it is a very simple matter to look 
at dummy's cards and see just how high you must go 
to shut him out and win the trick, if you can win 
it ; or force him up, so that he shall not win the trick 
too cheaply. 

If the dealer leads, both the dummy and your part- 
ner play after you, and the only thing you must be 
careful about is not to let the dealer catch your good 
cards napping. If you have the king and one guard 
only, dummy not holding the ace, make your king at 
once. The same is true of the queen twice guarded, 
dummy holding neither A nor K No matter how 
small the card led or those in dummy's hand may be, 
they may be better than anything your partner holds, 
and your queen may be caught. 

There are cases in which the dealer may coax you 
to cover when is not necessary to do so. Suppose 
dummy holds A J lo x, and the dealer leads the 
Q through your K and others. At first sight it looks 
as if the king was lost unless it had three guards ; 
but the queen may be a singleton, the dealer may even 
be afraid to take the finesse after having led for that 
purpose, and you should hold up your king as long as 
you can, for it is useless to play it. 

In General. There are a great many cases in 
which either of you can infer what the other holds 



130 FOSTERS BRIDGE MANUAL. 

by the manner in which the dummy's cards are played, 
or from the way in which the dealer leads to certain 
combinations in the dummy. This will be better 
understood when you have studied the system on 
which the dealer and the dummy play into each 
other's hands. For instance : You are the pone. 
Your partner leads a small card and dummy puts in 
the queen from Q x x. You hold the king and win 
the trick. This marks both A and J in the leader's 
hand, because the dummy would not put up the queen 
if the dealer held the jack, and if the dealer had the 
ace he would not allow your king to win. 

While false cards should be avoided, there are cases 
in which they may be useful. If you have K Q of a 
suit in which dummy holds A J and others, and your 
partner leads through this A J, by playing the K you 
may induce dummy to finesse the jack on the next 
round. Nothing can be lost by trying it. 

When your partner leads a suit in which he knows 
you have not the best card, he must have a finesse, 
or some advantage in position in the suit which you 
think he should have led, and you lead that suit to 
him if you can get in. 

The leading maxims for playing against no-trump- 
ers are : Always open your longest suit ; lead from 
high-card combinations strictly according to the sys- 
tem, and if you have no high-card lead, always begin 
with the fourth-best from suits of five or more ; avoid 
false cards ; and, never finesse against your partner. 



NO-TRUMPERS. 



THE DEALER'S PLAY. 

The dealer's play in a no-trumper, whether it is an 
original or a passed make, is the most interesting 
part of the game of bridge. It is also the most diffi- 
cult, because in the majority of hands so many things 
must be kept in view ; and it is the most responsible, 
because the partner abandons everything to your care 
and judgment and is not allowed to make the slightest 
remark, even if he sees that you are about to make 
the most glaring mistakes. 

Estimate of Probable Tricks. The moment the 
eldest hand has led, and the dummy's cards are on 
the table, the dealer's first care should be to look 
over the possibilities of the combined hands, his own 
and the dummy's, and estimate what tricks are cer- 
tain, what are probable, and what are possible only 
under certain conditions. He should then look at 
the score, and compare his estimate of the number of 
tricks probable or possible with the number that will 
be necessary to win the game ; or, if it cannot be won, 
to save it. Any person may secure some excellent 
practice in this, without any playing, if he will simply 
deal out two hands of thirteen cards each, sort out 

131 



132 FOSTERS BRIDGE MANUAL. 

« 

his own and turn up the dummy's, imagine it is a no- 
trumper and go over the tricks that are certain, and 
those that might be made if certain finesses came off 
or certain high cards could be caught. Many of 
these will, of course, be hands that would never be 
made a no-trump in actual play, but that will not affect 
the value of the practice in estimating the probable 
number of tricks in the combined hands, whether it 
be two or ten. 

Take a pack and lay out the following cards, sup- 
posing yourself to be the dealer, with the score 26 to 
20 against you on the rubber game : — 



9 



984 4.Q8632 0J7 ♦QlOQ. 



You pass it, and dummy makes it no trump. The 
eldest hand leads the king of diamonds, and dummy 
lays down the following cards : — - 

9Q62 ;?.AJ9 oAs ♦AK/es. 

The beginner would probably rush off with the im- 
pression that he had seven sure tricks and the game 
in sight, but that would be taking it for granted that 
the spade jack would drop in three rounds, making 
all the spades good. But suppose it does not drop ? 
While it is probable that it will, it is not certain, and 
you must take time to consider what will happen if 
you cannot catch it. If you fail to bring it down, or 
if you finesse against it and it is on the wrong side, 
you will lose the game and rubber instantly by 
letting in all the remaining diamonds and at least two 



ESTIMATING THE HANDS. I 33 

tricks in hearts, perhaps four or five if the pone has 
a finesse over the exposed queen. 

If you look this hand over carefully, you will see 
that there are only five certain tricks in the combined 
hands if the spade jack does not fall, and you must 
provide for that contingency. As no further tricks 
are possible in either of the red suits, you must 
look for the other tricks in the club suit, and the 
only way to make more than two tricks in that suit 
is by a successful finesse against the king if it is on 
your left, or by good luck in catching it if it is on 
your right. This shows that you must keep in view 
three important things when playing this hand : The 
high spades must be led without any finessing ; the 
dealer's hand must be in the lead on the third round 
of spades ; and, if the spade jack does not fall, the 
club suit must be finessed by leading the queen 
from the dealer's hand to the dummy's ace jack, so 
as to secure three tricks in that suit, if the finesse 
wins. 

The play of the hand therefore is, to start with the 
spade suit, leading ace and king and then a small 
card from dummy. If the spade jack falls, the rest 
is easy, as five tricks in spades and the two aces win 
the game ; but if it does not fall, it is impossible even 
to save the game, unless the lead is in the dealer's 
hand so that he can give the dummy a finesse in 
clubs. If that finesse fails, the game could not have 
been saved by any method of play. The great point 
to observe is, the danger of letting the adversaries 



134 FOSTERS BRIDGE MANUAL. 

into the lead until you have exhausted your resources 
and have got down to your last chance, the finesse in 
clubs ; because the moment they get in, they will win 
the game in the red suits before you can take another 
trick. 

This is a very fair example of what must be done 
in the way of estimating the probable value of a hand, 
and mapping out the way it must be played. Thou- 
sands of rubbers are lost for the want of a little fore- 
thought and a glance at the score. 

Inferences. A thorough knowledge of the system 
of leading from certain combinations of cards is of 
great importance, because it helps you to estimate 
the length and strength of the adversaries' suits and 
will frequently enable you to make a successful finesse 
or cover with the cards in dummy's hand. You 
should also be on the watch for echoes in the pone's 
play, so as to judge how the suit is divided between 
your adversaries. This is often important, especially 
when you have to take the chance of letting the 
remainder of the suit in, because the number of tricks 
that can be made in it may determine w^hether or not 
you can afford to risk it. 

Choice of Suits. When you or the dummy gets 
into the lead, the next thing to determine is, which 
suit you will play first, when you have a choice of 
two or more. There are two principal objects in 
playing one suit in preference to another ; one is, to 
make as many tricks as possible while you are in the 
lead ; the other is, to force discards in other suits. 



THE CHOICE OF SUITS. 1 35 

Suppose that with the score i8 to lo against you in 
a no-trumper, you have the following cards to play, 
the eldest hand having led the seven of diamonds. 
In dummy's hand : — 

Q432 4.AQ42 0Q3 ♦J842. 
In your own hand, you being the dealer : — 
0Q976 *K6 0A5 ♦AQ1053. 

Dummy plays the queen second hand and holds 
the trick. Many players would now make their three 
tricks in clubs, afterward going through with the 
spades and taking the finesse. But if you lead the 
clubs first, you are certain to establish at least one 
trick in that suit against you, even if you catch the 
J, 10, and 9 in three leads, because one adversary or 
the other must have four cards of the suit. Your 
play, therefore, is not to touch that suit, but to start 
your long spade suit, leading the jack from dummy^s 
hand and taking the finesse. If this finesse fails, the 
adversaries may take three or four tricks in hearts, 
but no more, because each hand must hold at least 
two hearts to make that possible. These tricks will 
not save the game for them, and after they have made 
their possible heart tricks you must win all the rest, 
and the game. 

If the spade finesse wins, or if you get in again on 
the diamonds, which is very probable, you can go 
right along with the established spades and force dis- 
cards in the club suit, perhaps making four club tricks. 



136 Foster's bridge manual. 

In the actual game, the player led the clubs first and, 
although he found the dealer void of the suit on the 
second round, he went on, establishing three clubs 
against himself on his right. He then led the spades, 
and the finesse failed. A small heart from the eldest 
hand found the ace with the pone, who made his 
three clubs, returned the heart, found the king and 
jack over the queen, and won the odd trick and the 
rubber. Thousands of games are lost every day 
through just such errors in judgment in the choice of 
suits. 

Sometimes you will hold a solid suit, in which you 
can take a number of tricks, and another suit in which 
you must take a finesse, and the combination you 
hold is such that the finesse may be taken in either 
hand. For instance : In one suit you have K J in 
dummy's hand, and A 10 in the dealer's, with smaller 
cards. In the other suit you hold K J 9 4 3 in 
dummy, A Q 8 6 in the dealer's. Play the long 
established suit first, and force discards in the other, 
and by the time you have led the long suit five times 
you will probably have a very good idea as to which 
side of you the queen lies that you want to finesse 
against. 

When two suits are nearly equal in strength, the 
longer should be selected for the first attack, because 
there is a better chance to drop the adversaries' high 
cards. Suppose dummy holds A Q 10 4 2 in one 
suit, A 8 7 6 in another, and the dealer holds J 6 5 
in the first, and K J 10 9 3 in the second, with the 



THE CHOICE OF SUITS. 13/ 

lead. Both suits demand a finesse against one card, 
but one suit is longer than the other and has the 
additional advantage that the finesse need not be 
taken on the first round. By leading a small card 
from the K J 1093 suit, and putting up the ace in 
dummy's hand, you may get a line on the situation 
and can then determine whether or not to finesse the 
second round or try to drop the queen. 

Here is another example of a slightly different situ- 
ation. The score is 18 all, rubber game, and a small 
club is led. The dummy lays down : — 

9743 ^762 084 ♦K9543. 

You are the dealer and hold : — 
gA85 4-AQ3 0KQ102 ♦A76. 

Your queen of clubs wins the first trick. Now 
look the hands over and you will see that there are 
only five sure tricks in them ; the one already taken, 
the three aces, and one trick in diamonds. In such 
situations, the best thing to do is to get a suit estab- 
lished at once, allowing the high cards to win early, 
so as to get them out of your way before you lose 
your reentries. Lead the. ace of spades, and then a 
small one, passing the second round altogether, no 
matter what the second hand plays, because even if 
you catch the queen or jack you cannot possibly 
catch both of them, but you must establish the suit 
if both adversaries follow to the second round, pro- 
vided you hold up the king and let them have 



138 Foster's bridge manual. 

the second trick. They can then play what they 
please, they cannot stop you from making two by 
cards. 

Discards. In addition to the necessity of forcing 
discards from the adversaries, it is important that you 
should look far enough ahead to provide for the dis- 
cards which you will force from yourself. Take the 
following example of a no-trumper, with the score 
24—0 against you, and the club six led by the eldest 
hand. The dummy lays down : — 

9K92 4-42 063 ♦AQJ1094. 

You are the dealer and hold : — 

9QJ87 *AQ5 0KJ54 ♦K2. 

Most players, upon getting in with the queen of 
clubs on the first trick, would rush off with the spade 
suit, making those six tricks at once, after which the 
club ace and one more trick will be all that is neces- 
sary to win the rubber. But can you get that all- 
important one more trick ? What are you going to 
discard from your own hand while the dummy is run- 
ning down those spades ? One small club and four 
other cards ? What shall those four cards be ? Will 
you let one entire suit go, or unguard two suits ? 
Whichever you do, you will probably get yourself into 
trouble, and will stop at two by cards when you must 
have three by cards to win the game, as the adver- 
saries are so far advanced in the score that they will 
probably go out on their deal. 



PROVIDING FOR DISCARDS. I 39 

To provide in advance for these discards, you must 
leave the spade suit alone and start your heart suit 
while you still have protection in all suits. Keep at 
it until you establish it by forcing out the ace. That 
card played, what can the adversaries do ? If they 
lead diamonds up to your king, you make every other 
trick. If they lead through it, put on the jack, for- 
cing the lead to go to your left, and again you make 
every trick but the possible A Q of diamonds. If 
they give up the ace of hearts at once and continue 
the clubs, which is the most probable, you make a 
little slam, by discarding every one of your diamonds 
on the spade suit. The principle involved in this 
position should be carefully studied, because its appli- 
cation is much more common than many players 
suppose. 

Locating Command of Suits. If the dealer is 
thoroughly familiar with the system of discarding used 
by his adversaries, he will find that playing one suit 
in order to force discards in another will generally 
enable him to place the honors which are missing 
from his other suits. It is not difficult to discover 
which hand is keeping a guard in a certain suit, or 
where the command of a suit lies, and many infer- 
ences may be drawn from the manner of play, as 
when a person lets go an established suit to keep 
another suit. There must be something worth keep- 
ing in that other suit or it would be thrown away. 
A player perseveres with a suit when the command is 
evidently against him, showing that he must have 



I40 FOSTERS BRIDGE MANUAL. 

some reentry card, with which he hopes to bring that 
suit in. A Httle consideration will usually tell you 
just what that reentry card must be, and by judicious 
finessing you may kill it, or you may compel him to 
throw his entire suit away in the attempt to keep it 
guarded. 

When Leading Established Suits, in order to force 
discards in other suits, it is always advisable to con- 
ceal the fact that the suit is established, and to keep 
the adversaries in the dark as to how many times you 
can lead it. Always begin with the top of your win- 
ning sequence and play down, making the adversaries 
hope that each time you lead is the last time they will 
have to discard. This will often lead them into mak- 
ing serious mistakes, especially if they fall into the 
common error of attempting to keep guards in two 

suits. 

. Passing with Aces. When the adversaries have a 
long and dangerous suit against you, in which your 
only winning card is the ace and you have no estab- 
lished suit to go on with, do not be in too great a 
hurry to give up that ace, but wait until one adversary 
is out of the suit, because you will then have to keep 
only one player out of the lead. Take the following 
example, the original lead being the jack of spades. 
Dummy lays down : — 

C)942 *KQJ73 <oji0 4 ♦S;. 

You are the dealer and hold : — 

9KQ7 4.1092 0AK72 ^ A6 4. 



PASSING WITH ACES. I4I 

The leader may have as many as six or seven 
spades, and you must hold up the ace until his partner 
is exhausted, and then start your clubs. If the ace 
of clubs is with the spade suit, it does not matter 
what you do, but if the club ace is with the player on 
your right, he will be compelled to hold it up for two 
rounds at least, so that you shall have no more clubs 
to lead to dummy, because dummy has no reentry 
himself. This will give you a chance, after making 
two club tricks, winning the second in dummy's hand, 
to shift to the diamonds, leading the jack from dummy 
and taking the finesse. If the pone will not let 
dummy hold the second round of clubs, you must 
make three more tricks in that suit. If he does let 
dummy hold it, it is useless to lead the suit a third 
time, because even if you establish it you can never 
bring it in, as dummy has no reentry. Lay out these 
cards and study this position carefully, and you will 
find many interesting and instructive points in it. 
In the actual game, the ace of clubs and queen of 
diamonds were both on the right. 

Finessing. The foregoing examples naturally lead 
us to see that there are many situations in which you 
are compelled to take a finesse in order to win a cer- 
tain number of tricks, or in order to shut out a cer- 
tain hand. The principal rules for finessing are 
these : You should finesse freely against the player 
with the established suit when his partner has none 
of that suit to lead to him, because you do not care how 
much the weak hand gets in and leads your suits, so 



142 FOSTERS BRIDGE MANUAL. 

that you can shut out the strong hand. You should 
always finesse when it is necessary that the finesse 
should come off in order to save or win the game. 
In the example just given of passing with aces, 
dummy must lead the diamonds, and the finesse 
must come off, or the dealer cannot possibly win the 
game. Endless examples might be given, showing the 
importance of these two rules, the principal thing 
being to plan in advance for the intended finesse, by 
getting the lead into the right hand at the proper 
time. 

Unblocking. It is sometimes very important to 
prepare early in the hand for unblocking a suit which 
is long, but such cases are not common. It is toward 
the end of the hand, when the reentries are all gone, 
that the dealer must be careful to lead suits in such a 
manner as to leave a clear field for the hand which 
has the greater number of the suit. This is too 
obvious to need examples, but it requires attention 
in actual play. 

END PLAYS. 

There are many positions in which you will see 
that unless the cards lie in a certain way you cannot 
get the tricks you require. The rule in such cases is, 
that if a certain card or cards must be, let us say, on 
your right, for you to succeed, you must assume that 
the card is where you want it to be and you must 
play as if you were certain of it, although you really 



IMPORTANCE OF END PLAY. 1 43 

know nothing about it, because if it is not there it is 
impossible for you to get the tricks you want, and 
therefore your play does not matter. 

The application of this rule will vary with circum- 
stances. In some cases you must assume that you 
can successfully finesse against a certain card ; in others 
you must play as if it was not guarded and you could 
catch it at any time ; in others you must take it for 
granted that the player holding it will have to win a 
certain trick with it, forcing him into the lead' and 
compelling him to come up to a tenace or a guarded 
second-best. 

Tenaces are very important in end play, and after 
you become expert enough to remember the outstand- 
ing cards down to the sevens and eights you will dis- 
cover many positions in which you can gain tricks by 
careful end play. As an example, suppose that the 
player on your left has originally opened a suit in 
which you won the first round with the queen. You 
have three cards of this suit left at the end, A 8 2, 
and the leader still holds three cards of it, K 9 and 
another, all the others having been played or discarded. 
He leads the 9. If you win this trick you lose 
both the others, because his king and small will be 
tenace over your 8 2. If you pass his 9, you win both 
the other tricks, because your A 8 will then be tenace 
over his king and small. 

In the end game it is a very common and fatal 
error to play for tricks that you do not want. You 
will often see a person who needs only one more trick 



,144 FOSTERS BRIDGE MANUAL. 

to win the game, and has a certain winning card in his 
hand, go out of his way to make some finesse or un- 
derplay in the hope that he will make two or three 
tricks more than he needs, just to add a little to the 
value of the rubber. This is all very well if he is cer- 
tain that he can make his winning card at any time, 
but it frequently happens that he has overlooked 
something, and never gets another chance to make 
the trick he needs so much, and perhaps never gets 
another chance to win that rubber. 

If the position is such that the play for more tricks 
than are necessary to win the game can be made either 
before or after the certain winning cards have been 
taken home, get in your tricks first and make sure of 
your game before you play for any extra tricks or 
little slams. If the position is such that the play for 
the extra tricks must be made first, do not risk it if 
there is any chance that failure will enable the adver- 
saries to save the game. No matter what the odds 
in favor of success, never take any odds when you 
have a certainty in your fingers. 

Many tricks are lost in the end game through igno- 
rance of the principles of play which are to be 
explained in the next chapter, the most common error 
being to lead from the wrong hand ; that is, from the 
hand which leads to its own disadvantage, instead of 
from the other hand to it. Take the following very 
simple example of end play, which may be seen every 
day : — 

Dummy has made it no trump, with the score 



EXAMPLES OF END PLAY. 145 

24-0 against him, and the dealer's side has already 
taken in six tricks. Dummy has in his hand five 
cards : the aces of both the black suits and the king 
and two small hearts, hearts having never been 
played. The dealer is in the lead, and has nothing but 
small cards in his hand, among them two small hearts. 
If he leads either of the black suits it is impossible to 
get another trick but the two aces, no matter where 
the A Q J of hearts lie ; so his score stops at two by 
cards, when he needs three by cards to win the game. 
But if he leads the hearts from his own hand to the 
king in dummiy's hand there is a chance that the ace 
may be on his left and that the king will win the all- 
important extra trick. If the heart ace is on his 
right, nothing can win the game ; but if the hearts 
are led from dummy's hand the game cannot be won, 
no matter where the ace of hearts is. 



COMBINING THE HANDS. 



THE PLAY OF DEALER AND DUMMY. 

The most interesting hands for the dealer, espe- 
cially in the play of a no-trumper, are those in which 
he has to plan in advance for certain combinations in 
his own hand and dummy's, which must be played in 
a certain way in order to take full advantage of the 
position. There are also quite a number of combina- 
tions in the suits led by the adversaries with which 
it is necessary to cover second hand, and others with 
which it is better to pass the trick up to the fourth 
hand. These combinations, and their proper manage- 
ment, should be thoroughly familiar to the player, so 
that he may handle them to the best advantage, whether 
he leads from one hand to the other himself, or is led 
through by the adversaries. The chief difficulty is to 
foresee that a certain hand must be in the lead at a 
certain time and to arrange that the play shall come 
about in the manner planned, in spite of the attempts 
of the adversaries to prevent it. 

Many of the following rules may be applied to the 
plain suits in hands in which there is a declared trump, 
as well as to any of the suits in a no-trumper. The 
guiding principle in all of them being that it Is better 

146 



COMBINING THE HANDS. 



147 



to lead to the strong hand than to lead away from it. 

It is well known that it is to the advantage of the 
adversaries to lead up to the dealer's or the dummy's 
weak suits, and to lead through his strong suits. It is 
therefore manifestly to the advantage of the dealer to 
reverse this process, and to lead up to his own strength. 

Leading from One Hand to Another. Analysis of 
various positions shows us that there are certain com- 
binations of cards which must be led up to instead of 
being led away from. It does not matter whether 
these combinations are in the hand of the dealer or of 
the dummy, as the principle involved is the same, the 
important thing being the direction from which the 
lead comes. 

When a ^' concealed hand " is spoken of, it is always 
the dealer's hand which is meant, that term being 
used to distinguish his cards from the dummy's, which 
are exposed. 



and others in one hand. 



Small cards only in the other. 

The manner of playing this combination will de- 
pend somewhat on whether or not either hand can 
get into the lead at any time. The best way is to 
play the king first, either by leading it or leading to 
it, and then to put the other hand in on another suit, 
if you think it advisable to take the finesse of the 
jack on the second round, or wish to try your chances 






148 



FOSTERS BRIDGE MANUAL. 



of catching the queen unguarded. If there is no way 
of getting the other hand in again, you must make up 
your mind whether you will finesse the jack on the 
first round or will try to drop the queen in two leads. 
A good deal will depend on the number of cards you 
have in the suit between you, and on the tricks that 
you require to save or win the game. 



in one hand. 






and small cards in the other. 



When you have less than nine cards of the suit 
between the two hands, lead the jack, and if the second 
hand follows suit, but does not play the queen, finesse 
the jack. With nine cards, put the king on the jack, 
and if both adversaries follow suit, go on with the 
ace, on the chance of dropping the queen. 






in one hand. 



Small cards only in the other. 

Always lead to this combination, and finesse the 
first round, unless you have so many that there is a 
fair chance of catching the king alone. If you can- 
not get in with the other hand, so as to lead to it, lead 



COMBINING THE HANDS. 



149 



the queen or jack, so as to get the king out of your 
way at once, especially if you have but two of the 
suit in the other hand. 








and others in one hand. 



Small cards only in the other. 

Always lead from the other hand, and finesse the 
queen. If the other hand cannot get in, lead a small 
card from the A Q suit for the first round. 



in one hand. 



Small cards only in the other. 

Lead from the weak hand and finesse the ten if 
you can get the weak hand in again, because if the 
honors are divided and the second hand does not cover, 
which he never will do unless his honor is unguarded 
or he has both of them, only one of them can make, 
the second lead from the weak hand and the second 
finesse establishing the suit. If the honors are both 
in the hand which you lead through, you kill one of 
them with the ace if he covers and force the other 
with the jack or ten. If he does not cover, your ten 
will hold the trick. If you do not take the finesse at 
all, you are certain to make both king and queen good 
against you and the suit can never be cleared. 



ISO 



FOSTER S BRIDGE MANUAL. 





and others in one hand. 



and others in the other. 



If the positions of the J and lo are reversed, the 
principle is the same. Lead the J or lo from the 
weak hand for the same reasons as those just given, 
when A J lo were all in one hand, and play the com- 
bination in the same way, finessing the first lead if 
the second hand does not cover. It is useless to lead 
a small card from the ace in the hope of making the 
J or I o in the other hand, because that is impossible. 
Some players lead a small card from the weak hand 
if it is the concealed hand, in the hope that if both K 
and Q are second hand, the player will pass. But you 
do not want him to pass ; what you want is to get the 
suit cleared. 





and others in one hand. 



and others in the other. 



If the positions of the J and Q are reversed, the 
play is the same. Always lead the Q or J from the 
weak hand and take the finesse. 



COMBINING THE HANDS. 



151 





and others in one hand. 



and others in the other. 



This combination may be held in various ways, but 
the principle is the same in all. Always lead the best 
card in the weak hand to the ace hand, and take the 
finesse. Do not trouble yourself about false-carding ; 
you want the king out of your way as soon as possible. 



and small cards in one hand. 




and small cards in the other. 



It is useless to lead the queen unless you have the 
jack, and it is better not to touch the suit at all, but if 
you must open it, lead a small card from the ace hand, 
especially if the queen is in the concealed hand, 
hoping that the king will go up second hand, giving 
you two tricks in the suit. If you lead the queen from 
the weak hand, you make the J and 10 good against 
you, for the second hand will certainly cover with the 
king, whether he has fourchette or not. 



and others in one hand. 





Small cards only in the other. 



152 



FOSTERS BRIDGE MANUAL. 



This combination should be avoided if possible, but 
if you must open the suit, do not lead away from the 
K and Q, but lead a small card to it, hoping that the 
ace will go up second hand to shut you out, giving 
you two tricks in the suit. If the ace is second hand 
and is not played, try to get the weak hand in again, 
so as to lead through the ace a second time. 




or 



0ii 


t 


'(iWi 


m 


!&, 


w\ 


/flM 


ffl 



or 




in one hand. 



in the other. 



The same principles apply as in the foregoing. It 
is a common error to lead an honor from one hand or 
the other, because you are certain to lose it, no matter 
on which side of you the ace may be. Lead a small 
card, in the hope that the ace will go up. 





4. -^4. 



and others in one hand. 



Small cards only in the other. 

This is very similar to the A J 10 combination. If 
you lead from the weak hand and play the king, you 
may make that trick, but the suit is stopped and both 
A and Q are good against you, no matter where they 
lie. Lead from the weak hand and finesse the ten. 



COMBINING THE HANDS. 



153 



If the ten forces the ace and the weak hand can get 
in again the queen will be caught. 

and others in one hand. 






and others in the other. 



If the positions of the J and lo are reversed, the 
principle is the same. Lead the honor from the weak 
hand and take the finesse, for the same reasons as 
those just given for K J lo in one hand. 



and small cards in one hand. 



Small cards only in the other. 

If you lead away from the king, it is impossible to 
take a trick in the suit, because the adversaries must 
make A Q J against you. If you lead from the weak 
hand to the king, it is an even chance that the king 
wins, but it is better not to touch the suit at all if you 
can avoid it. 



and others in one hand. 



Small cards only in the other. 

Always lead to this suit ; never from it, if you can 
avoid it. The king or ace must go up if second hand 






154 



FOSTER S BRIDGE MANUAL. 



holds either of those cards. This will save you from 
using one of your honors to force a higher honor, 
which you will have to do if you lead the suit. 

1^ 





or 




in one hand. 



Small cards only in the other. 

Avoid such suits as long as possible, but if you 
must open them, lead to the Q, hoping the A or K 
will go up second hand. If it does not, finesse the lo 
from Q lo. If you have Q and small cards only, 
neither J nor lo, duck the first round altogether. 

The following combinations should be avoided as 
long as possible, the number of small cards ac- 
companying the honor being unimportant. 








in one hand, 



in one hand, 



in one hand. 



in one hand, 









in the other ; 



in the other ; 



in the other 



in the other. 



SECOND HAND PLAY. 



On account of the concealment of one hand, your 
play will sometimes make a difference when you are 
led through, and many persons have a habit of always 
false-carding from the concealed hand when they have 
honors in sequence, never playing the king when they 
have the ace, or the jack when they have the queen. 
Doing this sort of thing too regularly spoils its effect, 
because the moment you play the king the adversary 
knows you have not the ace, and he places that card 
with his partner. 

There are quite a number of combinations which 
must be played in a certain way second hand in order 
to protect yourself in the adversaries' suits, and these 
should be very carefully studied. When no particular 
lead is mentioned, a small card is meant. 



and one small, second hand. 




and two small, fourth hand. 



Never put up the king second hand, because if you 
do the ace may kill it, and the Q and lo may catch 



156 



FOSTER S BRIDGE MANUAL. 



your jack. By playing small second hand, you are 
sure of a trick in the suit, no matter how the cards lie 
or how the adversaries manage them. 




in one hand ; 




in the other. 



If either of these is led through, play a small card. 
If either card has one guard to it and the other has 
two guards, no matter which, you must make a trick 
in the suit, provided you do not lead it and do not 
play the honor second hand, even on a lo led. 



in one hand ; 




and only one small in the other. 



If the queen is led through, put it on, as that is the 
only chance to make two tricks in the suit. But if 
the queen has more than one small card with it, pass. 
If the queen is led up to, never play the ace second 
hand, but let the lead come to the queen. 



in one hand ; 





and one small in the other. 



SECOND HAND PLAY. 



157 



The presence of the 10 makes quite a difference 
here. If the queen is led through, do not play it 
second hand, even though it has but one guard, 
because if third hand has the king and plays it he can- 
not have the jack, so your Q 10 are tenace over that 
card, and good for two tricks. If third hand plays 
the jack, it will take the king to catch your queen 
and your ten is good. If you put up the queen second 
hand on the first trick, and the king cQyers, your 10 
may be led through and killed if the jack is on your 
left. 



in one hand ; 





in the other. 



^ 



Never play the J second hand, unless the 10 is led, 
for if the Q covers your J you have sacrificed two 
honors to get one trick. Let the lead come up to 
you. If the K is the card led through, never put it 
up, but let the lead come up to your A J, so as to 
find out where the Q is. 



♦m 




m 


t 


H 




fWVi 


m 




m 


1 


IvMi^L^ 




/p§M 


^{^ 






SSiVuf^n 





second hand ; small cards, fourth hand. 



Always play one of the honors second hand in a 
no-trumper ; never on an original lead with a declared 
trump. When there is a trump, no good player will 



158 



FOSTER S BRIDGE MANUAL. 



start a hand by leading away from an ace, and your 
best chance is that third hand will not hold the jack 
and will have to play the ace. 





second hand ; 




fourth hand. 



Play the lO second hand, in order to prevent the 9 
from forcing out your K and the A and Q afterward 
picking up your J and 10, leaving you only one trick 
in a suit in which you hold three honors. 



second hand ; singleton in the fourth hand. 



If the trick is necessary to win the game, play the 
king second hand, unless it is an original lead to a 
declared trump, in which case it is useless to play the 
king second hand, and your only chance is to ruff 
off the ace on the second round. 




PLAYING TO THE SCORE. 



While this is undoubtedly the most important, it is 
also the most difficult part of the game, and the begin- 
ner should not worry himself too much about it until 
he has thoroughly mastered the elementary principles 
of making the trump, going over, leading and return- 
ing suits and combining the hands. As he becomes 
more at home in these things the score will naturally 
force itself upon his attention, and perhaps the loss of 
a few rubbers will still further impress its importance 
upon him. 

A really first-class player must accustom himself 
to keep his weather eye always on the score, because 
it affects everything in the game, from the make to 
the last trick played. One should be especially care- 
ful of its influence upon the makes, and never risk a 
no-trumper on the chance of getting a big score when 
a spade make is a certainty to win the game. With 
only four points to go, if you find yourself with seven 
clubs to the quart major and another ace, do not take 
any chances, but make it a club and take your game 
while you have the opportunity. When the score is 
in your favor and you are in the lead, if there is any 
danger that the adversaries will win the game, make 
tricks enough to save it before you take any finesses 

159 



i6o Foster's bridge manual. 

which may give them the chance to go out. If you 
have two sure tricks in sight, and want only two to 
win the game, do not go looking for two or three 
more tricks, unless you are very sure that the two you 
have in sight will not get away. Endless rubbers are 
lost through trying to get more than enough to win 
them. 

In the end game, always take a fresh look at the 
score, and count up the tricks you have already taken 
in and those in sight. If you want a certain number 
of tricks always play as if the cards lay favorably for 
your success. If a certain ace must be on your left 
in order that you shall get another trick in hearts, 
assume that it is there, and play accordingly, because 
if it is not there, you cannot get the tricks you are 
looking for. If a certain number of tricks must be 
made out of a hand and you see that they are impos- 
sible in a certain suit, do not pay any more attention 
to that suit, but examine the others until you find one 
in which the tricks required are possible, even if im- 
probable, and then think what is the best way to play 
so as to make those much needed tricks in that 
doubtful suit. There are endless situations in bridge 
in which the cards must lie in certain ways, or a cer- 
tain number of tricks must be made out of a given 
suit, in order to save or win the game, and the score 
is the only guide which will always tell you just what 
must be done. 

In playing against the dealer, your chief object will 
be to save the game, because you are not supposed to 



PLAYING TO THE SCORE. l6l 

be trying to win the game against the declared 
strength in the dealer's hand, unless it is a spade make 
or a go-over. If you find yourself in the lead with a 
winning card which will save the game, make that 
card at once, unless it is the best trump or you are 
quite sure that the gaAie is safe in any case. Run- 
ning for your life is a great art, and many a rubber 
has been snatched from the fire by making an ace 
before the dealer could get another discard. 

The importance of playing to the score will natu- 
rally be suggested by many things which have already 
been touched upon in the foregoing pages : practice 
and attention are the only things that will complete 
a player's education in such matters. 



LUCK. 



In all games of cards, no matter how nearly the 
principles of play may have been reduced to a science, 
there is always more or less uncertainty about the 
run of the cards themselves, and as we do not know 
what laws control their fluctuations, making them 
flow sometimes toward us and sometimes against us, 
we call it luck, and when it is not coming our way we 
say we are in bad luck. 

This element of luck seems to come and go like the 
tides, its periodicity being different with different in- 
dividuals, and the best we can do is to take advantage 
of it when it is favorable and avoid it when it is not ; 
but we cannot presume on its setting in one direction 
for any length of time — not even for a single deal. 
Some players attach great importance to what they call 
''the vein," and if they find things are not going their 
way in the first rubber or two they will stop playing, 
although, for aught they know, the very next rubber 
might bring a change. Others will fight desperately 
against a run of adverse luck and will continue to 
play long after their usual time of retiring ; but they 
will not stick to the game with the same pertinacity 
when it is going their way ; which they should do, in 
order to make things even. One of the most common 

162 



CONCERNING BAD LUCK. 163 

faults with those who play cards for a stake is, that 
they will not sit and win as much as they will sit and 
lose. 

Some attach great importance to the choice of 
seats and cards, as if one side of the table were a sort 
of eddy into which all the good cards naturally drifted. 
There is absolutely nothing in the seats and cards, as 
any one will discover if he keeps a notebook and puts 
down the number of times the fancied seats win or 
lose. It is not enough to make a note of remarkable 
runs, but every rubber must be noted for at least a 
month. There are times when it seems as if certain 
seats had the best of it and the fact attracts attention 
and makes an impression. This impression is suffi- 
ciently strong to obliterate the memory of the many 
times that seats have lost when they were apparently 
bound to win. The absurdity of all superstitions 
attached to seats and cards is evident from the fact 
that it is always the winning seats which are chosen 
to win again, although the odds against any given 
seats winning twice in succession are three to one, 
and against their winning three times in succession, 
seven to one. Luck, or what we call luck, attaches 
to individuals, not to seats and cards, and when a 
player is not in the vein he may sit anywhere he likes 
and take any cards he pleases, but it will not affect 
the result. He will continue to cut the worst partner 
at the table, hold the worst cards, and have the worst 
luck in makes and finesses. Everything he does will 
be wrong and everyone he plays with will throw him 



164 Foster's bridge manual. 

down. If you cannot stand this sort of thing good- 
naturedly and console yourself with the thought that 
the sun must shine again, the best thing to do is to 
retire from the game and content yourself with look- 
ing on, for nothing is so disagreeable at a bridge table 
as a player who is in bad luck and is continually call- 
ing attention to it. 

It is useless to complain about your luck, and it is 
still more useless to try to force it. The best rule is, 
to play for a certain length of time every day that you 
do play, and never to exceed that time, no matter 
what kind of luck you are in. You may cut short 
some good days but you will also cut short many bad 
ones, and you will not have to guess which are which 
if you treat them all alike. As you learn more of the 
game you will find that a great deal of that which 
you previously attributed to bad luck was in reality 
not luck at all, but the accumulated result of a num- 
ber of bad plays. 

Many persons think that there is too much luck in 
bridge and that the element of chance enters so largely 
into the game that it is practically impossible for any 
degree of skill to overcome it. You will find players 
who continually lose more than they win and who 
seem to fall behind all the time. They attribute this 
to their bad luck, but if you will watch them atten- 
tively you will soon discover that it is bad judgment 
and bad play which is Responsible for their losses. A 
make which should have been a no-trumper is passed 
for a spade, and a rubber that might have been won 



CONCERNING BAD PLAY. 1 65 

on that deal is lost on the next. A finesse which was 
the only possible way to save a game was not taken. 
A rash go-over let the adversaries get just enough to 
put them out. Playing the wrong suits first, leading 
from the wrong hand, forgetting to preserve reentries, 
and want of care in watching the fall of the cards, not 
taking advantage of favorable positions, not knowing 
whether the eight or the nine is the best of the suit, 
inattention to the discards, and hundreds of little 
things like these are the real cause of the lost tricks 
that lose the rubbers that are charged up to bad 
luck. 

There are very few players that do not lose two or 
three tricks in the course of an ordinary rubber, and 
some will lose an average of a trick a hand. Did you 
ever stop to think what this means ? Suppose you 
play half a dozen rubbers every day and lose two or 
three tricks on each of them, which is a conservative 
estimate unless you are a very good player. This 
would mean about fifteen tricks a day, or five thousand 
a year. As the average value of a trick is about eight 
points, you will be forty thousand points behind, and 
if you play for the ordinary club stake of two-and-a- 
half cents a point your bad play will cost you just about 
a thousand dollars, which you will attribute to bad luck, 

On the other hand, suppose that by the exercise of 
reasonable care and attention to the score in the 
makes, caution in the go-overs, and correct play in 
your leads, returns, and combinations, you save half of 
those forty thousand points every year, while other 



1 66 Foster's bridge manual. 

persons, who are too idle or indifferent to study the 
principles of the game, continue to lose them. Will it 
be that your luck has changed or that you play better ? 
While every player, no matter how expert, will lose 
tricks occasionally, no one can drop fifteen or twenty 
tricks every time he plays and still come out ahead of 
the game. Cards will run against every one at times, . 
but there is no game in which you can save as much 
when you are in bad luck, and win as much when you 
are in good luck, as you can at bridge, provided 
you have taken the trouble to learn the correct prin- 
ciples of play and will then follow them faithfully, no 
matter how the cards go. In all card games a person 
must expect things to go against him at times, just as 
at others they seem to favor him in everything he 
attempts. The difference between good and bad play 
is, that the good player will get all that is coming to 
him during the bad spells and more than is due him 
in his good spells ; while the bad player will lose more 
than he should in the first case, and will not win as 
much as he could in the second. 

Just put a pin prick in a visiting card every time 
that you see you have lost a trick that you might 
have saved, and count up the total at the end of the 
week. The number of holes you find in that card 
will be a much better index of the quality of your 
game than the number of rubbers that you may win 
or lose. If you are in doubt about the play, make a 
note of the conditions and look up the text -book after- 
ward ; you will be helped by the index which follows. 



IN CONCLUSION. 167 



IN CONCLUSION. 

Stick to the solid principles of the game and 
do not be discouraged if things do not always turn 
out as they should do. Correct play is bound to win 
in the end, and if you will have a little patience you 
will find that your adversaries will present you with 
tricks and rubbers enough to balance a great deal of 
bad luck. 



INDEX. 



Abandoned hands, 22. 
Absurdity of superstition, 163. 
Aces against a no-trumper, 36. 
Aces as honors, 11, 12. 
Aces, carrying home, 127. 
Aces, holding up, 120, 123. 
Ace led, unblocking on, 115. 
Aces, passing with, 34, 140. 
Advantage of eldest hand in 

going over, 58. 
Advance, plan of play in, 146. 
Advantage of good play, 166. 
Advantage over the dealer at 

no trump, 105, 106. 
Adversaries, keeping out of 

the lead, 134. 
Adversaries' suits, protection 

in, 155. 
After a go-over, leading, 73. 
After a go-over, discarding, 92. 
Against the dealer, playing, 

160. 
Always discard strength, 91, 

121. 
Arrangement of dummy's 

cards, 17. 

169 



Asking, "Shall I play?" 15. 

Assuming position to be fa- 
vorable, 160. 

Assuming position of certain 
cards, 142. 

Avoiding difficulties in the 
discard, 138. 

Avoiding certain suits, 85, 88. 

Avoid forcing both adversa- 
ries, 90. 

Avoid leading high trumps, 
100. 

Bad diamond makes, 43. 
Bad luck and bad play com- 
pared, 162. 
Bad luck, forcing, 162. 
Bad play, percentage of loss, 

165. 

Bad play, responsible for 
losses, 164. 

Balancing scores, example of, 
24. 

Being "in the vein," 162. 

Best make, importance of se- 
lecting, 29. 



170 



INDEX. 



Black hands, 45. 

Blue Peter, 81. 

Book, or six tricks, 8, 19. 

By cards, 8. 

Calling attention to penalties, 
18. 

Calling highest or lowest card, 
21. 

Calling for trumps, 81. 

Cards, arrangement of dum- 
my's, 17. 

Cards, exposed, 19. 

Cards of equal value in cut- 
ting, 2, 4. , 

Cards faced in dealing, 6. 

Cards, highest win tricks, 19. 

Cards spread for cutting, 2. 

Cards, rank of, i. 

Cards and seats, choice of, 2, 
163. 

Carelessness in going over, 
61. 

Carrying home aces, 127. 

Certain tricks must be won by 
finessing, 141. 

Certain cards, assuming posi- 
tion of, 142. 

Chances of partner's holding 
certain cards, 123. 

Chicane, 12. 

Chief things for dummy to re- 
member, 54. 



Choice between clubs and 
spades, 53. 

Choice of seats and cards, 2, 
163. 

Choice of suits to play, 134. 

Claiming honor score, 12. 

Claiming a new deal, 14, 21. 

Clubs and spades, choice be- 
tween, 53. 

Club makes, 45. 

Club makes with four honors, 

45. 
Club makes with score against 

you, 46. 
Club makes with honors in 

your favor, 46. 
Coaxing high trumps, 100. 
Command of dummy's suits, 

keeping, 89. 
Command shown by echo, 

117. 
Command of suits, locating, 

139- 
Combinations in dummy's 

hand, leading to, 124. 

Combining the hands of dealer 
and dummy, 146. 

Comparative value of no- 
trumps and diamond makes, 

43- 
Conclusion, 167. 

Conditions against you at no- 
trumps, 105. 



INDEX. 



171 



Confession of weakness at no- 
trump, 106. 

Confidence in the partner, 35, 
107. 

Consultation between dealer 
and dummy, 13. 

Contingencies, providing for, 
132. 

Conventional heart leads, 113. 

Correcting revokes, 21. 

Counting cards during the 
deal, 7. 

Counting every point made, 9. 

Counting on partner for prob- 
able tricks, 33. 

Covering with f ourchettes, 128. 

Covering an honor with an 
honor, 128. 

Covering with king, second 
hand, 128. 

Cut, where placed, 6. 

Cutting for partners, i . 

Cutting cards of equal value, 
2, 4. 

Cutting to decide ties, 3. 

Cutting to form the table, i. 

Cutting original low, 4. 

Cutting intermediate cards, 3. 

Danger of aces against you, 

36, 37. 
Deal, claiming a new one, 14, 
21, 



Deal, irregularities in the, 6. 
Dealer and dummy's hands 

combined, 146. 
Dealer and dummy with A K 

J, 147. 
Dealer and dummy with A K 

10, 148. 
Dealer and dummy with A Q 

J, 148, 150. 
Dealer and dummy with A Q, 

149, 151. 
Dealer and dummy with A J 

10, 149. 
Dealer and dummy with A Q 

J 10, 151. 
Dealer and dummy with K Q, 

151, 152. 
Dealer and dummy with K J 

10, 152, 153. 
Dealer and dummy with K x, 

153- 
Dealer and dummy with Q J 

10, 153- 
Dealer and dummy with Q J 

or Q 10, 154. 

Dealer touching dummy's 
cards, 20. 

Dealer's confession of weak- 
ness, 106. 

Dealer's makes to the score, 

31- 
Dealer not making it black, 

45- 



o 



1/2 



INDEX. 



Dealer's play with a trump 

suit, 95. 
Dealer's play at no-trump, 131. 
Dealer, playing against him, 

160. 
Dealer probably weak in red, 

52. 
Dealer's suit, keeping guard 

on, 121. 

Dealer consulting with dum- 
my, 13- 

Dealing, 5. 

Dealing for the partner, 7. 
Dealing out of turn, 6. 
Dealing, cards exposed in, 6. 
Deceiving the dealer, 87, 93. 
Deciding ties in cutting, 3. 
Declarations, standard hands 

for, 31. 
Declared trump, playing 

against, 63. 
Deducting lower from higher 

score, 9. 
Diamond makes, 42. 
Diamond makes, rules for, 44. 
Diamond makes, bad ones, 

43- 
Diamonds made to the score, 

44. 

Diamonds and no-trump com- 
pared, 43. 

Difference between original 
and passed makes, 50. 



Difference in leads at no- 
trump, 107. 

Difficulties in the discard, 
avoiding, 138. 

Discarding, 90, 120. 

Discarding, when allowed, 19. 

Discarding strength always, 
91, 121. 

Discards at no trump, 120. 

Discards with a declared 
trump, 90. 

Discards after a go-over, 92. 

Discards forced from adver- 
saries, 134, 140. 

Discards, reversed, 93. 

Discards from the dealer's 
hand, 138. 

Distinguishing long suits from 
short, at no trump, 108. 

Double major tenace, 85. 

Doubling, or going over, 14. 

Doubling, order of, 15. 

Doubling, limit of, 17. 

Doubling,'^irregularities in, 17. 

Down-and-out echo, 80. 

Dummy, 17. 

Dummy and dealer consulting, 

13. 
Dummy's and dealer's hands 

combined, 146. 
Dummy's cards, 82, 122. 
Dummy's cards, arrangement 

of, 17. 



INDEX. 



173 



Dummy's cards, dealer touch- 
ing, 20. 

Dummy's cards, exceptional 
leads on account of, 123. 

Dummy not looking at his 
cards, 50. 

Dummy calling attention to 
penalties, 18. 

Dummy, leading through him, 
84, 125. 

Dummy, leading up to him, 

87. 

Dummy leading through you, 

126. 
Dummy leading supporting 

cards, 126. / 

Dummy's makes, 51. 
Dummy's makes, no trumps, 

51- 

Dummy's makes, hearts, 52. 

Dummy's makes, diamonds, 

52. 
Dummy's makes, clubs, 53. 

Dummy's makes, spades, 53. 

Dummy's makes to the score, 

54. 
Dummy must make it, 13. 

Dummy preventing lead from 

the wrong hand, 18. 
Dummy, playing against, 122. 
Dummy on your left, 84, 129. 
Dummy on your right, ^J^ 

126. 



Dummy's remarks or sugges- 
tions, 17. 

Dummy revoking without pen- 
alty, 20, 22. 

Dummy saving revokes, 17. 

Dummy's second-hand play,98. 

Dummy's singletons, 84, 88. 

Dummy's strong suits, lead- 
ing, 84. 

Dummy's suits, keeping com- 
mand of, 89. 

Echoes on partner's leads, 80. 
Echoes to show command, 

117. 
Echoes to show number, 117. 
Echoes on high cards led, 1 16. 
Echoes with high cards, 117. 
Either hand taking a finesse, 

136. 
Effect of going over on honors, 

13. 

Eldest hand, 5. 

Eldest hand going over no- 
trump, 56. 

Eleven rule, 79. 

Eleven-rule finesse, 120. 

Eliminating impossible suits, 
96. 

End plays, 142, 145. 

Enough, saying, 16. 

Equal value, cutting cards of, 
2, 4. 



174 



INDEX. 



Errors in score, time to cor- 
rect, 24. 

Errors in honor column, 25. 

Established suits, leading, 
140. 

Establishing suits early, 137. 

Estimating probable tricks, 
96, 131. 

Every point made is counted, 9. 

Examples of end play, 143, 

145- 
Example of scoring, 23. 

Examples of adding scores, 

24. 
Exceptional leads, on account 

of exposed cards, 123. 
Exercises in the leads, 72. 
Exercises on the makes, 48. 
Exposed cards, 19. 
Exposed cards in dealing, 6. 
Exposing weakness in the 

make, 51. 

False cards, 127, 130, 155. 
False cards, leading, 86. 
Favorable positions, assum- 
ing, 160. 
Finessing, 100, 120, 141. 
Finessing against one card, 

lOI. 

Finessing against the partner, 

81, 117, 127. 
Finessing with A Q, 117. 



Finessing with K J, 117. 
Finessing by the eleven rule, 

120. 
Finesse, taking in either hand, 

136. 
Finesse over the dealer, giving 

partner, 123. 
Finesses necessary to win 

certain tricks, 141. 
Forcing, 89. 

Forcing the partner, 90. 
Forcing both adversaries, 90. 
Forcing discards, 134, 140. 
Forcing your luck, 162, 164. 
Forms of score sheet, 8. 
Forming the table, i. 
Foster's eleven rule, 79. 
Fourchettes and tenaces, 85. 
Fourchettes, covering with, 

128. 
Fourchettes, leading through, 

86. 
Fourth hand playing before 

partner, 20. 
Fourth-best leads, 68. 

Game hands, 39. 
Game, object of the, 8. 
Game is thirty points, 9. 
Games, two won by same side, 

23- 
General principles of going 

over, 60. 



INDEX. 



175 



Getting proper hand in the 

lead, 142. 
Getting suits established early, 

137- 
Giving information to partner, 

78. 

Giving partner a finesse over 

the dealer, 123. 
Going over, or doubling, 14. 
Going over does not affect 

honors, 13. 
Going over, principles of, 16. 
Going over, reasons for, 55. 
Going over no-trumpers, 56. 
Going over spade makes, 15. 
Going over to the score, 55. 
Going over, carelessness in, 

61. 
Go-over, leading after a, 73. 
Go-over, discarding after a, 

92. 
Go-over, providing against a, 

38. 

Go-over no trump, leading to, 

113- 

Going back, 16, 60. 

Going back, limit to, 62. 

Good makes, importance of, 
27. 

Good makes, judgment neces- 
sary for, 28. 

Good makes, probability of, 
27] 



Good play, advantage of, 166. 

Grand slam, 12. 

Great spade hands, 47. 

Guarded kings, value of, 112. 

Guards on dealer's suits, keep- 
ing, 121. 

Guarding weak suits, 90, 92. 

Guessing partner's suit at no- 
trump, 113. 

Hands, abandoned, 22. 
Hands of all black cards, 43. 
Hand, concealed, 147. 
Hands of dealer and dummy 

combined, 146. 
Hands, irregularities in, 6. 
Heart makes, 39. 
Heart makes with six or seven 

trumps, 39. 
Heart makes with five trumps, 

39. 40. 
Heart makes with six trumps, 

40. 
Heart makes with four trumps, 

41. 
Heart makes with four honors, 

41. 
Heart honors, value in the 

score, 41. 
Hearts, passing with six, 39. 
Hearts, conventional lead at 

no trump when gone over, 

113- 



1/6 



INDEX. 



High cards, echoing with, 

117. 
High trumps, when not to 

lead, 100. 
Highest cards win, 19. 
High cards, unblocking with, 

118. 
Highest or lowest card called, 

21. 
Holding up aces, 120, 141. 
Honors, 10. 
Honor points and trick points, 

8. 
Honor values, table of, 11. 
Honor column, errors in, 25. 
Honor score, claiming, 12. 
Honor score, importance of, 

30- 
Honor score in hearts, value 

of, 41. 
Honors, simple, 11. 
Honors not affected by going 

over, 13. 
Honors, inferring position of, 

139- 

Honors, probability of part- 
ner's holding, 35. 

How to remember honor 
values, II. 

How tricks are lost, 165. 

Imperfect fourchettes, 85. 
Imperfect packs, 7. 



Importance of good makes, 
27. 

Importance of reentries, loi. 

Importance of the score, 31. 

Importance of the score in go- 
ing over, 55. 

Importance of honor scores, 

30, 41. 
Importance of selecting best 

makes, 29. 

Importance of tenace posi- 
tions, 143. 

Impossible suits, eliminating, 

96. 

Incorrect or imperfect packs, 7. 
Individuals, luck attaching to, 

163. 
Inferences from leads, 134. 
Inferring tenace in partner's 

hand, 130. 
Inferring position of honors, 

139- 
Influence of the score on the 

make, 159. 

Influence of score on passed 
makes, 54. 

Information gathered from 
leads, 99. 

Information given to the part- 
ner, 78. 

Intermediate cards, cutting, 3. 

Intermediate or interior leads, 
112. 



INDEX. 



177 



Intermediate leads, playing on, 

118. 
Irregularities in the deal, 6. 
Irregularities in doubling, 17. 
Irregularities in the hands, 6. 
Irregularities in the make, 14. 
Irregularities in the lead, 18, 

19. 
Irregularities in the play, 19. 
Irregularities in the score, 24. 

Judgment necessary in makes, 
28. 

Keeping adversaries out of 

the lead, 134. 
Keeping the lead, 83. 
Keeping command of dummy's 

suits, 89. 
Keeping guards in dealer's 

suits, 121. 
Keeping guards on weak suits, 

90, 92. 
Keeping small trumps in one 

hand, 102. 
Killing reentries, 83, 119. 
Kings, leading up to, 123. 
Kings, value of, guarded, 112. 
Kings played second hand, 

99, 127, 129. 

Last tnck, looking at, 19. 
Last few tricks, playing, 142. 



Lead, getting into proper hand, 

142. 
Lead, placing the, 146. 
Lead, keeping the, 83. 
Leads, exercises in, 72. 
Leads, inferences from, 134. 
Leads, irregularities in, 18, 19. 
Leads, against declared 

trumps, 59. 
Leads, against no-trumpers, 

107. 
Leader, 5. 
Leading, general principles of, 

60. 
Leading out of turn, 20. 
Leading from the wrong hand, 

18, 19. 
Leading at trump declarations, 

59- 

Leading trumps, 99. 

Leading plain suits instead of 
trumps, 98. 

Leading at no-trump, 107. 

Leading long suits at no- 
trump, 106. 

Leading short suits at no- 
trump, 106. 

Leading to particular combina- 
tions in dummy's hand, 124. 

Leading from one hand to the 
other, 147. 

Leading to go-over at no- 
trump, 113. 



178 



INDEX. 



Leading to go-over in spades, 

73. 
Leading up to passed hands, 

72. 
Leading to passed makes, 

1 12. 
Leading to spade makes, 59. 
Leading established suits, 140. 
Leading sequences, 140. 
Leading through fourchettes, 

86. 
Leading false cards, 86. 
Leading to the strong hand, 

84, 147. 
Leading up to weakness, 88, 

122. 
Leading up to aces, 123. 
Leading up to kings, 123. 
Leading up to dummy, 87, 

122. 
Leading dummy's strong suits, 

84. 

Leading through dummy, 125. 
Limit of doubling, 17. 
Limit of going back, 62. 
Little slam, 12. 
Locating command of suits, 

139- 
Looking for unnecessary 

tricks, 160. 
Looking back, penalty for, 22. 
Long suit leads at no-trump, 

106. 



Longer suit, selecting, 136. 
Loss, percentage due to bad 

play, 165. 
Lower score deducted from 

higher, 9. 
Lowest or highest card called, 

21. 
Luck, 162. 
Luck attaching to individuals, 

163. 

Make, object of the, 10, 30. 
Make, passing to the partner, 

13, 27. 
Make, irregularities in the, 

14. 
Make, remarks on the, 26. 
Make, exercises in the, 48. 
Make, influence of the score, 

159. 
Makes, for safety, 14. 
Makes, probability of good 

ones, 27. 
Makes, original, 30. 
Makes, passed, 50. 
Makes, remarks on passing, 

27. 
Makes, no-trumpers, 32. 
Makes, hearts, 39. 
Makes, diamonds, 42. 
Makes, clubs, 45. 
Makes, spades, 46. 
Makes, to the score, 31. 



INDEX. 



179 



xMaking it no-trump, 33. 
Making it with four aces, 33. 
Making it with three aces, 33. 
Making it with two aces, 34. 
Making it with one ace, 35. 
Making it without an ace, 36. 
Making it witli one missing 

suit, 37. 
Making it with two missing 

suits, 37. 
Making or declaring the 

trump, 9. 
Making it to the score, 31. 
Making it diamonds, rules for, 

44. 
Making winning cards early, 

161. 
Major and minor tenace, 85. 
Maxims for playing against 

no-trumpers, 130. 
Mental training in the makes, 

29. 
Method of playing the game, 

18. 
Misdeals, none in bridge, 6. 
Missing suits, 34. 
Most valuable score, selecting, 

32. 

Neglecting to play to a trick, 

21. 
Never made black by the 

dealer, 45. 



New deal, claiming, 14^ 21. 
New suits, opening, 119, 123. 
No misdeals in bridge, 6. 
Notation of players' positions, 

5- 
No-trump makes, standard for, 

32, 34. 
No-trump, difference in open, 

ing leads, 107. 
No-trump and diamond make 

compared, 43. 
No-trumpers, going over, 56. 
No-trumpers made by the 

dealer, 32. 
No-trumpers made by tke 

dummy, 51. 
No-trumpers, the dealer's play, 

131- 

No-trumpers, playing against, 

104. 

No-trumpers, guessing at part- 
ner's suit, 113. 

Number of players engaged, i. 

Number of points game. 9. 

Number in suit, showing, 1 11. 

Number shown by the echo, 
117. 

Objects of the game, 8. 
Object af the make, 10, 30. 
Objections to discarding weak 

suits, 121. 
Opening new suits, 119, 123. 



i8o 



INDEX, 



Original leads against a de- Partner's probable tricks, 33, 

clared trump, 64. 
Original leads at no-trump, 

107. 
Original low in cutting, 4. 
Original makes, 30. 
Original makes, no trump, 32. 
Original makes, hearts, 39. 
Original makes, diamonds, 

42. 
Original makes, clubs, 45. 
Original makes, spades, 46. 
Original makes, to the score, 

31- 
Original and passed makes 

compared, 50. 

Order of doubling, 15. 

Over- trumping, 102. 

Out of turn, dealing, 6. 

Out of turn, leading, 18, 20. 



Pack, incorrect or imperfect, 

7- 
Partner, giving information 

to, 78. 
Partner, going over a spade 

make, 73. 
Partner's siiits, returning, 82. 
Partner, when to force, 90. 
Partner, confidence in, 35, 

107. 
Partners, cutting for, i. 
Partner, dealing for, 7. 



Partner's chance of holding 

certain cards, 123. 
Partner's chance of holding 

honors, 35. 
Partner unblocking at no 

trump, 107. 
Passed makes, 50. 
Passed makes, no trumpers, 

51- 
Passed makes, hearts, 52. 

Passed makes, diamonds, 52. 

Passed makes, clubs, 53. 

Passed makes, spades, 53. 

Passed makes, to the score, 

54. 
Passing the make, 13, 27. 

Passing with six hearts, 41. 

Passing tricks with aces, 34 
140. 

Penalties, dummy calling at- 
tention to, 18. 

Penalty for looking back, 22. 

Perfect fourchettes, 85. 

Picking up singletons, 84. 

Placing the cut, 6. 

Placing the lead to advantage, 
146. 

Plain suits led before trumps, 

98. 

Planning plays in advance, 

146. 
Play, irregularities in, 19. 



INDEX. 



l8l 



Players, number of in table, i . 

Players' positions at the ta- 
ble, 5. 

Playing the hands, 18. 

Playing two cards to one 
trick, 21, 

Playing against a declared 
trump, 63. 

Playing against the dealer, 
160. 

Playing against the dummy, 
122. 

Playing through the dummy, 

84. 

Playing to the score, 159. 

Playing for extra tricks, 144. 

Playing for tricks you don't 
want, 143. 

Playing down in the leads, ^^ . 

Points, every one counted, 9. 

Points for winning rubber, 9. 

Points for tricks and hon- 
ors, 8. 

Pone, 5. 

Pone going over a no-trumper, 

57. 

Position of shuffled pack, 5. 

Position of players at the ta- 
ble, 5. 

Position of certain cards as- 
sumed, 142. 

Positions, notation of, 5. 

Practice in the makes, 48. 



Preserving reentries, loi, 106. 

Principle of going over, 16. 

Probable tricks in partner's 
hand, 33. 

Probable tricks, counting on, 
96, 131. 

Probability of good makes, 27. 

Probability of partner's hold- 
ing honors, 35. 

Probability that dealer is 
weak in red, 52. 

Proper hand getting the lead, 
142. 

Protecting yourself in adverse 
suits, 155. 

Protection in a suit defined, 

34- 

Providing for your own dis- 
cards, 138. 

Providing against a go-over, 

38- 

Providing for contingencies, 
132. 

Queen, second hand, 127. 

Rank of the cards, i. 

Reasons for going over, 55. 

Reentries, importance of pre- 
serving, 1 01. 

Reentries in the suit itself, 
106. 

Reentries, killing, 119. 



l82 



INDEX. 



Refusing to cover second 
hand, 129. 

Remarks on the make, 26. 

Remarks on passing the make, 
27. 

Remarks made by dummy, 17. 

Remembering honor values, 
II. 

Returning partner's suits, 82. 

Reverse discards, 93. 

Revoke penalties, 21, 22. 

Revoke, no penalty for dum- 
my, 20, 22. 

Revokes, correcting in time, 
21. 

Revokes, time in which to 
claim, 22. 

Revokes, dummy saving, 17. 

Revokes do not count toward 
slams, 22, 

Revoking side stops at 28 
points, 22. 

Rights of original low in cut- 
ting, 5- 

Rubbers and rubber points, 9. 

Ruffing instead of leading 
trumps, 98. 

Ruffing the weak trump hand, 

98. 

Rules for diamond makes, 44. 
Rule of eleven, 79. 

Safety makes, 14. 



Safe spade makes, 47. 

Same side winning two games, 

23- 
Saving or winning the game, 

95. 
Saving revokes, 17. 
Saying " enough," 16. 
Score, playing to the, 159. 
Score, irregularities in, 24. 
Score, method of keeping, 22, 

23- 
Score, importance of attention 

to, 31. 

Score, its influence on the 

make, 31, i59- " 
Score, its influence on passed 

makes, 54. 
Score, its influence on spade 

makes, 46. 
Score, importance of in going 

over, SS- 
Score, selecting the most val- 
uable, 32. 
Score for honors, claiming, 

12. 
Score, correcting errors in, 

24. 
Scores, example of balancing, 

24. 
Scoring all points made, 9, 

22. 
Scoring, examples of, 23. 
Scoring sheets and blanks, 7. 



INDEX. 



183 



Seats and cards, choice of, 2, 

163. 
Second hand play, 155. 
Second hand play by dummy, 

98. 
Second hand play on dum- 
my's leads, 127. 
Second hand with K x, 127, 

129. 
Second hand with Q x, 127. 
Second hand at no trump, 155. 
Second hand with K x, 155. 
Second hand with A 10 one 

hand, Q in the other, 1 56. 
Second hand with A J one 

hand, in the other, 157. 
Second hand with K Q, 157. 
Second hand with J 10 one 

hand, K in the other, 158. 
Second hand with K, singleton 

in fourth hand, 158. 
Second hand with J one hand, 

Q in the other, 156. 
Second hand with A one hand, 

Q in the other, 156. 
Second round of the suit, 

leading, 76. 
Second round after ace led, 

76. 

Second round after king led, 

74- 
Second round after queen led, 

76. 



Second round after ten led, 

Second round after short suit 

led* ^^. 
Second round leading, fourth 

best, 78. 
Seeing the last trick, 19. 
Selecting long suits at no- 
trump, 136. 
Selecting most valuable score, 

32. 
Sequences, leading, 140. 
'• Shall I play?" asking, 15. 
Short-suit leads at no-trump, 

106, 113. 
Shots, 95. 

Showing number in suit, 68. 
Showing number by echoing, 

117. 
Shuffled pack, position of, 5. 
Signal for trumps, 81. 
Simple honors, 11. 
Singletons an element of 

strength, 54. 
Singletons in dummy's hand, 

84, 88. 
Six hearts, passing with, 41. 
Slams, little and grand, 12. 
Slams not made by revoke 

penalties, 22. 
Small trumps, keeping, 102. 
Spade makes, 46. 
Spade makes for safety, 47. 



i84 



INDEX 



Spade makes with black 
hands, 47. 

Spades and clubs, choice be- 
tween, 53. 

Spade makes, going over, 15, 

59- 
Spreading the pack for cut- 
ting, 2. 
Stacking the tricks, 18. 
Standard hands for trump 

makes, 31. 
Standard hands for no-trump- 

ers, 32, 34. 
Stopping a suit, 35. 
Strength of the dealer's side, 

105. 
Strong suits always discarded, 

91. 
Strong hand, leading to, 147. 
Suits, choice of, 134. 
Suits, selecting longest, 136. 
Suits, getting established 

early, 137. 
Suits, returning partners, 82. 
Suits to avoid, 85, 88. 
Suits too strong to lead 

through, 125. 
Suits, protection in, 34, 155. 
Suits which are stopped, 35. 
Suits, locating command of, 

^39- 
Superstition, absurdity of, 

163. 



Supporting cards, 70. 
Supporting cards led 

dummy, 126. 
Sure game hands, 39. 



by 



Table, forming the, i. 
Table of trick values, 10. 
Table of honor values, 11. 
Taking shots, 95. 
Tempting partner to doubtful 

makes, 46. 
Tenace and fourchette, 85, 

143- 
Tenaces, importance of, 143. 

They and we, 8. 
Theory of discarding at no- 
trump, 121. 
Things that govern the make, 

31- 
Third hand play, y8. 

Third hand against no- 

trumpers, 115. 
Third hand on ace led, 115. 
Third hand on king led, 118. 
Third hand on jack led, 1 18. 
Third hand on small cards led, 

117. 
Third hand on high cards led, 

79- 
Third hand on low cards led, 

80. 

Third hand on interior leads, 

118. 



INDEX. 



185 



Third hand playing before 
second, 20. 

Thirty points game, 9. 

Ties in cutting, deciding, 2, 3. 

Time in which to correct 
errors, 24. 

Time in which to claim re- 
vokes, 22. 

Too late to force, 89. 

Touching cards in dummy's 
hand, 20. 

Trick points and honor points, 

8. 

Tricks, table of values, 10. 

Tricks, method of stacking, 
18. 

Tricks, estimating those prob- 
able, 96. 

Tricks, playing for extra, 144. 

Tricks you don't want, 143. 

Tricks that must be made, 
141. 

Tricks, how they are lost, 

165. 

Trump leads, 99. 

Trumps, to lead or ruff, 98. 

Trump signal, 81. 

Trump suit, making or declar- 
ing, 9. 

Trump declarations, going 
over, 59. 

Two cards played to one trick, 
21. 



Two games won by same side, 
23. 

Unblocking, 142. 
Unblocking at no-trump, 107. 
Unblocking on aces led, 

115. 
Unblocking on kings led, 

118. 
Unblocking with high cards, 

118. 
Unnecessary tricks, playing 

for, 160. 
Usual theory of the discard, 

121. 

Value of tricks, table of, 10. 
Value of honors, table of, 

II. 
Value of aces as honors, 12. 
Value and importance of 

honors, 30. 
Value of guarded kings, 112. 
Vein, being in the, 162. 

Weak hands, 1 1 1. 

Weak suits, danger of dis- 
carding, 121. 

Weak spots in no-trumpers, 
104. 

Weak trump hands, 98. 

Weakest suits, guarding, 90, 
92. 



1 86 INDEX. 

Weakness exposed in the Winning or saving the game, 

make, 51. 95. 

Weakness, leading up to, 88, Wrong hand, leading from, 

122. 18, 19. 

We and they, 8. Wrong number of cards in 
Where honors lie, inferring, hand, 6. 

139- 



OCT 24 1900 



